


there was a flood on the last day of summer

by Miss_Mysteries



Category: Sanders Sides (Web Series)
Genre: Human AU, M/M, Summer Camp AU, we're going to a fine arts camp folks
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-07-29
Updated: 2018-08-10
Packaged: 2019-06-18 05:39:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 29,194
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15478830
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Miss_Mysteries/pseuds/Miss_Mysteries
Summary: "If you asked Virgil what reminded him most of summer, he would tell you the Poe cabin in Stanza Unit at Hickory Forest Fine Arts Camp."Virgil Addams loved the piano. And his other instruments too, but mostly, he loved the piano. He signed on to work at Hickory Forest Fine Arts camp to spend the summer doing the one thing he really loved- playing music. But, when eccentric co-counselors arrive, old memories bubble to the surface, and a summer goes by in a whirlwind, he finds maybe there was more to gain from this job than just playing an old tune on a grand piano.





	1. arrival

If you asked Virgil what reminded him most of summer, he would tell you the Poe cabin in Stanza Unit at Hickory Forest Fine Arts Camp.

 

It was surreal, to be alone, looking now at the building he associated with so many of his summer memories. Without the bustle of high schoolers running around, heading to classes, making crafts, tuning instruments, and playing pranks on the counselors the camp felt empty. It was as if it’s very soul left with the kids as summer came to a close. It felt wrong to be at the cabin with no one but himself.

 

But there he was, first to the camp on orientation day. Virgil knew he could have waited at least another hour before he left, but the last thing he wanted to do was be late to his summer job on his first day. So, now he was one of the first people in the camp, and definitely the first person in the Stanza unit. Not even the Unit Director had arrived yet, which made Virgil’s stomach lurch. He had been sure the Unit Director would be there before him, but now that he wasn’t, Virgil was left wondering if he had the wrong day. Despite checking his phone numerous times to assure the date was, in fact, June 15th, and corroborating that with the fact that the letter in his hand told him to arrive for training on the 15th, he still checked again. And again. And again.

 

Just in case.

 

Between glances at his phone, he kept finding his gaze going back up to the Poe cabin.

 

_“Mom, Ma, seriously you don’t need to help me unpack, I can do it myself.” A 15-year-old Virgil wrestled with his mothers to get them away from his backpack, which they were fervently unpacking. All the other parents had just dropped off their kids and left, Virgil didn’t want to give anyone a reason to pay any more attention to him then they had to._

 

_Clicking her tongue, Virgil’s mom stepped away from the backpack placed on the bottom bunk, her wife following suit._

 

_“Fine, fine, if you say so.” Mom defensively put her hands up, rolling her eyes. Ma pulled Virgil into a hug._

 

_“Oh sorry. We just want to help you out.”_

 

_“No, we just want an excuse to stay longer to avoid saying goodbye.”_

 

_“Okay, that too. We’re just trying to make sure everything is… comfortable here. After your last camp-”_

 

_Virgil interrupted his Ma, “No, this is fine. Everything is going to be fine. It’s only 2 weeks, and I’ll be in the recital hall with other piano players most of the time. I’ll be fine.” Virgil bit his cheek. He wasn’t sure how much he believed what he was saying. Mostly, he was trying to reassure himself more than his mothers._

 

_His Ma sighed, pulling apart from the hug._

 

_“Yes, yes okay, you’re right. Now, just remember, if anything happens-”_

 

The memories flooding into Virgil’s head were sent to a screeching halt as he felt a hand on his shoulder. He nearly fell onto the ground as he jumped away from whatever had just touched him.

 

Words came stumbling out of the mouth of the man who had scared him, the man not even stopping for a breath.

 

“Oh, I’m so sorry! Ugh, I didn’t mean to scare you like that, I was just at the Parchment unit across the trail there visiting with some friends and then I saw you as I was walking back, and I realized I PROBABLY should have stayed here to wait for the counselors, and like a _goof_ , instead of just saying something, I thought I’d tap you on the shoulder and surprise you and oh man how long have you been waiting here? We should probably get you all situated because based on the time the other counselors will be here soon- Are you okay?” As he finally stopped, Virgil could see as the man was breathing heavily, the speed of the words catching up to him apparently.

 

“Uh… I’m fine. Thanks.” The words came out cold. The man sighed.

 

“I’m really sorry. Here, let’s start over. Hi! I’m Thomas, I’ll be your Unit Director here at the Stanza unit this summer. Which of the counselors would you be?” Thomas stuck out a hand, and Virgil tentatively shook it, stuffing his phone and letter in the pockets of his jeans.

 

“Virgil. Addams. Virgil Addams.”

 

Thomas relaxed with apologies out of the way. His shoulders, that had been tense, dropped, and an easy, pleasant expression replaced the panic of earlier. Virgil could tell Thomas wanted to make a good first impression to the counselors.

 

“Alright, Virgil Addams! Nice to meet you.” Thomas’ gaze went up to the Poe cabin, the cabin they were currently standing in front of. He pointed to the name carved on top of the cabin door.

 

“You a fan? Of Poe I mean?” Virgil shook his head, then backtracked.

 

“No, well, I mean, kind of. This was the cabin I was in when I came to camp.” Virgil said, voice quiet.

 

“Oh, that’s so cool that you came here too! I only went once right after my senior year of high school and I KNEW that I had to be a counselor! I was in the Forte unit though. I suppose you know where that is?” Virgil nodded, heading up the steps to the door of the cabin.

 

“Do we, uh, get to pick our cabin?” Virgil bit his lip, not turning to Thomas. He didn’t want to seem hopeful, but he really wanted to have this same cabin.

 

Thomas sighed.

 

“No, cabin assignments were already made, unfortunately. Who knows though! Maybe you got that one by chance.” Thomas tried to sound encouraging as he ended the statement, but Virgil’s heart dropped.

 

Not that Poe cabin had necessarily been a good place for him all the time. In fact, he had quite a few bad memories in there to match the good; nights sleepless because of various thoughts not leaving his head, rude cabin mates, and- yeah. Not necessarily always fun. But, that was summer for him. Poe cabin was his home, love it or leave it. Now, knowing that even as a counselor, there was uncertainty as to whether or not he would be there, that left a pit in his stomach.

 

He put on a smile though, letting out a dry laugh.

 

“Well, with my luck, I won’t get it. But, whatever I suppose.” Virgil shrugged. Thomas’ face remained sympathetic, not looking like he was buying it, but within moments his expression returned to normal.

 

“Let’s go find out, I have the cabin assignments here in the Unit Director Cabin.” Thomas pointed towards the centermost cabin of the Unit, a slightly larger cabin with two doors- one to the right labeled “Office” and one to the left labeled “Room”. Virgil followed Thomas as he went through the door to the office.

 

_“Virgil, how did this happen?”_

 

_“I just- nothing. I don’t know.”_

 

_“Are you sure? You know we have the phone in here if you need to call a parent-”_

 

_“No! No, I promise, it’s fine. Remy is making a big deal out of nothing I swear.”_

 

_“Alright, but remember you can come to me or your cabin counselor if you need anything, okay?” His unit director gave him a warm smile. He cared. He really did. Virgil nodded, but both him and the unit director knew that it was an empty gesture. Virgil was not going to continue this discussion. Ever._

 

“Virgil? You can come in, you know?” Thomas let out a laugh. Virgil shook himself of the memory of the last time he remembered entering this same Unit Director cabin. He stepped in, letting the wood door close behind him.

 

The cabin looked nothing how Virgil remembered.

 

When he had been here, it had been pristine- The kitchen area always top notch and washed as if it had never even been used, the corner with the first aid kit having a cozy chair and a few books of various genres for kids who had to wait to be given meds or given bandages or sometimes given the word to go to the Health center at main camp. Most notably, the center table was always clean and clear so the camp counselors could come in, visit, discuss, eat, play board games, and more. It was always so organized, whenever Virgil would have to go in, he would wonder if anyone even used the space.

 

Now, however, under Thomas’ reign, the Unit Director Cabin office sported a different look. Mostly, chaos. Grocery bags scattered the floor, as well as numerous boxes. Piles of books were shoved into corners, the first aid kit had spilled out onto the floor, and the center table wasn’t even visible under the papers and files that scattered the surface.

 

The mess of the room itself stressed Virgil out, let alone the act of trying to step around to the table without stepping on something. Meanwhile, Thomas maneuvered around the mess without even looking down, as if he was so used to it that it was second nature to make his way to the table at this point. Virgil eventually made his way to sitting in the chair across from Thomas as he shuffled through the papers.

 

“Oh, I know it’s here somewhere…” Thomas muttered to himself. Virgil rolled his eyes. _How could anyone find anything in this mess?_

 

“Ah!” _Well. Spoke too soon_. Thomas held up a red folder labeled “Counselor Information.” Virgil sat tapping his fingers on the table as Thomas took his time going through the folder, before pulling out a packet.

 

“Alright, here we go: Addams, Virgil. Well, it looks like you’ve been assigned to-” Thomas’ smile faltered before he looked up at Virgil with sympathy rampant in his eyes.

 

“You’ll be heading up the Alighieri cabin.”

 

Logically, Virgil knew it was coming. Lady luck was never really a friend of his.

 

His heart, however, still hurt.

 

Best to just brush it off though.

 

“Whatever, it was a stupid hope anyway. I’ll take Aligator-whoever.”

 

Thomas gave a laugh at Virgil’s creative pronunciation of Alighieri’s name. For a second Virgil thought the Unit Director would try and reaffirm him about the cabin assignment and make a big deal out of it, but to his relief, Thomas just continued with business, handing Virgil the packet with his name on it.

 

“This packet has all you need to know about cabin maintenance, camp events, your daily schedule, among other things,” leaning in, Thomas added, “You can skip most of the reading, to be honest. The higher-ups tell us to recommend you read them, but 99% of it is covered in the training we do this week, so it’s a bit of a waste of time.”

 

Virgil let a laugh fall from his lips, “Thanks for the advice.” Thomas waved it off.

 

“Not a problem! So now you can go ahead and move into the Alighieri cabin until the other three counselors get here. Once you’re done you can take your car back to the main camp where it has to stay throughout the camp, unless you leave the campgrounds themselves,” Thomas stood up, “It’s been a pleasure to meet you, Virgil, I’m sure we’ll have lots of fun here at Hickory Forest!”

 

Virgil got up from his seat.

 

“Yeah, I’m sure.” He gave a slight smirk and left the Unit Director cabin as Thomas went sorting through the papers once more.

 

_So, he wasn’t so bad. Slightly insufferable, but a nice enough guy._

 

Virgil went out to his car, which he had parked in front of the Unit Director cabin, and popped open the trunk. Looking at its contents, he tried to think of a way to get all of the items into the cabin in one trip, but anyway he looked at it, he would have to take the dreaded second trip back to the car.

 

Sighing, Virgil slung his backpack over his shoulders and grabbed the first of his instrument cases, his guitar.

 

The Alighieri cabin was directly across from Poe in the semicircle of 5 cabins that made up the Stanza unit. It looked exactly like Poe, so it shouldn’t have been that different to adjust.

 

Except that was a lie.

 

Stepping into Alighieri was like entering an alternate universe where everything is mostly the same, but some slight things are off, leaving the whole scene feeling unnatural. Alighieri was almost Poe, but not quite; the counselor area, the area of the cabin with half walls taking up one of the corners of the cabin by the door for the counselor to sleep in, was on the other side of the door compared to Poe. The bunks, instead of having them against the wall the long way, were instead against the wall at the heads of the beds. All of the furniture, the shelves, the beds, all of those were the same items, but the ways they were arranged just felt wrong after the past 3 years of summers in the Poe cabin.

 

So, instead of getting his items from his car, he spent 20 minutes pushing the bunks to look like how they were in the Poe cabin. It was stupid, but Virgil was not a fan of change, so if he could do something to help himself adjust a bit better, he was going to do it.

 

By the time he was finished, his arms already ached. Turns out, pushing around heavy bunk beds by yourself is not such an easy task. But, he had to get the last of his stuff out of his car, so despite his body screaming at him to rest, he forced himself up to do it.

 

Duffle bag hanging from his shoulder, cello case in one hand and trumpet case in the other, his bike left in the car, Virgil dragged the last of his things into Alighieri, shoving all of it into the counselor area.

 

Throwing himself onto the stiff camp bed, Virgil sighed. Unpacking could wait, he wanted to just breathe.

 

And then there was a knock at the cabin door. Virgil rolled his eyes as he pulled himself off of the bed he had just laid down on.

 

“Are you kidding me,” he muttered, opening the door, leaning against it as he crossed his arms. He raised an eyebrow as he looked at Thomas who stood in front of him grinning.

 

“Hey, Virgil! So one of the other counselors just got here, so if you’ve got all of your things, would you mind moving your car?” Thomas held his hands together, face so cheesy that he might as well have added ‘Pretty please?’ to the end of his request.

 

Virgil sighed. He had completely forgotten that. Stepping out, Virgil nodded, walking to his car, catching only a glimpse of bright blue right behind him before pulling out.

 

Hickory Forest Fine Arts Camp was huge. It was a miracle Virgil didn’t get lost in the forest while biking his way back from Main Camp on the winding trails.

 

For the most part, if you knew your way around, the camp was easy to navigate. Right at the center of camp, you had Main Camp. Here was where the camp bank, camp store, mess hall, snack bar, informational booth, health center, and more were. It was the main hub of activity in the camp, where kids in between classes would go to get ice cream, relax with friends, buy camp merch, and more.

 

Just northwest of Main Camp was the Snell Amphitheatre, an outdoor amphitheater donated by some rich old dude who was an enthusiast of the arts back in the 70s. It had since been updated, but it was mostly the same. That was where the big camp events were; The dance, All camp sing (where the units would come together and do these big cheesy song numbers. Virgil, for one, thought the event was mortifying), the talent shows for both campers and counselors, and countless other performances that would happen throughout the 2 weeks the campers would be at Hickory Forest.

 

From Main Camp and Snell, there were 4 main trails that led to 8 units and all of the buildings where classes were held. Units were groups of 4 cabins and 1 unit director cabin, mostly there to keep such a large camp organized. To the south, you had the 2 halls where the various bands would practice throughout the weeks. Further down that trail, you had Stanza unit, for boys, and Parchment, for nonbinary, genderfluid, and transgender kids who would feel more comfortable in a more inclusive gender space than in the assigned gender units (Virgil thought this was the best change they had made in the one year since he had been a camper here. Though they could still be doing better to be inclusive at the camp, this was a fantastic start.)

 

To the west, you had the building for the 2 choirs, which was an old church that had been newly renovated. There was also the hall for the Visual Arts like painting and sculpture, with another 2 units on that side as well.

 

To the east, you had 2 diverging trails for the 4 girls units. Both trails, however, once passing the units, would lead to both the dance hall, for the dance majors, and the Kent Theater, where the 3 theater classes would practice and perform.

 

Not even mentioning the various volleyball courts, the pool, the lake, and other miscellaneous things at the camp, it was huge, and while the main trails were easy to follow, the smaller bike trails that diverged into the forest that were supposed to be shorter were much harder to follow. Still, Virgil eventually found his way back to Stanza, a tiny bright blue car parked exactly where his had been, a man with curly ash blond hair attempting to carry 3 bins at once out of it.

 

Virgil rolled his eyes, dropping his bike by Alighieri and running over to the man, grabbing the bin from the top.

 

“You’re going to hurt yourself trying to carry that much at once, or trip and break whatever junk you have in here.” Virgil grumbled. The bin was heavier than he had expected, firstly making him question what this dude even had with him that was this heavy, and secondly, making him question if the 2 other bins were as heavy as this one how the man was even still standing.

 

With the top bin was gone, Virgil could see the man’s face now. The first thing Virgil noticed was the stunning blue eyes. Contrasting the dark brown of Virgil’s own, the man’s eyes were a vibrant blue, framed by large glasses on a face that was covered by golden brown freckles.

 

As their eyes met, the stranger’s face lit up, a bright smile forming on his face.

 

“Thanks, kiddo! I’m sure I would have been able to handle it, but I sure do appreciate you helping! I did kinda BOX myself into a corner!” The man grinned wildly at Virgil.

 

A snicker escaped from Virgil before he could stop himself.

 

The stranger looked satisfied.

 

“Well, new friend, how about we drop these off at my caBIN!” The man winked, before walking off towards the Carroll cabin.

 

“Oh come on, that one was too easy.” Virgil critiqued, smiling as he followed the stranger to the cabin. As the man dropped the bins on the steps, he shrugged.

 

“What can I say? Some puns require an acquired taste to PATTON-ted jokes!” Virgil cocked his head as he set down the bin he was carrying. By the look on the man’s face, Virgil assumed he had just told another pun, but if he did, Virgil wasn’t following. Seeing this, the man shook his head, lightly smacking his own forehead.

 

“Duh! Whoopsie, that one doesn’t really make sense, does it?” The man stuck out his hand, “My name is Patton!”

 

Repeating the joke to himself, Virgil pieced it together. He nodded his head, shaking Patton’s hand.

 

“Makes sense now I guess. Virgil. I’m the counselor at that cabin over there.” Virgil pointed back to Alighieri. Patton glanced behind Virgil at the cabin, adjusting his glasses, probably to read the sign better.

 

“Alig… Alighay… Alighee… Who?”

 

“Who indeed, Patton. Who indeed.” Virgil said, a mocking philosophical tone seeping into his voice.

 

Patton turned his attention back to him. Something about Patton was just so… bright. There was no other way to describe it. His eyes, the way he smiled, the whole general aura he put off was bright. On one hand, the cynical part of Virgil wanted to interrogate him, figure out if it was all just a happy-go-lucky act.

 

But Virgil was always more of a fan of having hope that some people are just that happy.

 

“So Virgil, what is your major here at camp?” Patton asked, heading back to his car to pull out now a backpack and what looked like an easel. Virgil leaned against the door to hold it open for Patton as he carried everything in.

 

“Oh. I’m helping with piano, which I guess is the orchestra major.” Virgil said, shifting as he crossed his arms. Normally, at places like college and such, he normally didn’t like the divulge about his music playing, but the whole point of coming to Hickory Forest was to share that stuff, so he would have to at some point.

 

“Wow! Can you play like… all of those really famous piano songs? Like the one that goes ‘dun dun da DUN, dun dun da DUN’”

 

Patton continued his… interesting… vocal performance of Beethoven’s 5th symphony with such gusto and energy it almost made Virgil forget how much he hated the question preceding it. Whenever he told people he could play various instruments at college or at dreaded family gatherings, he would always just get requests. It was never a question as to what he wanted to play, it was always what other people wanted him to play. Music was his thing, and when all he got were requests from people as to what songs to play, he felt it took away his ownership of his music bit by bit.

 

Maybe that was overdramatic. He could still play whatever he wanted, most people just didn’t want to hear that.

 

As Patton finished his impromptu performance, complete with (inaccurate, but full of spirit) conducting, Virgil clapped.

 

“Well I’m sure I couldn’t play it as fantastically as you just performed it, but yeah, theoretically I could play ‘all those really famous piano songs’. Or, maybe not all of them. But like, some of them.” Virgil replied. Patton’s face turned a slight pink at Virgil’s compliment, waving him off.

 

“Oh you! Well, I’d love to hear you play sometime!”

 

Virgil bit his tongue.

 

“Sure. Why not.”

 

Patton clapped excitedly.

 

“Yay!” He ran up, pulling Virgil into a hug. Immediately, Virgil stiffened. Even with his friends, he was not one for physical contact. Now, a person he had barely met 10 minutes ago was hugging him tightly. Surely for Patton, this was normal, but for Virgil, it was like he was being constricted by a snake trying to squeeze the life out of him.

 

“I think we’re going to be fantastic friends!” Patton exclaimed, hugging tighter. He obviously did not notice Virgil’s discomfort.

 

“Okay, Patton, that’s, uh, that’s enough hugging,” Virgil said, his voice struggling to get through from how restricting the hug was. As soon as Virgil said that though, Patton pulled away, smile still bright on his face, turning to unpack one of his bins, which Virgil now saw was full of various different paints.

 

“So, I’m guessing you’re an art major then?” Virgil asked, gesturing towards the paints and the easel. They weren’t the only clues though- Virgil had just noticed the paint splotches all on Patton’s pants, all of various colors, as well as a bit of white paint that seemed to have gotten on the rim of Patton’s glasses.

 

Patton looked up at Virgil while he unpacked.

 

“Yup! You could say I’m a bit of a… Patton-ter!” He paused, waiting for a reaction that never came.

 

“You know… like a painter?”

 

Despite the smirk on Virgil’s face, he just shook his head, “Nope.” Patton shrugged.

 

“You can’t win them all. But yeah, I suppose I’m a bit of an artist, it is what I’m majoring in at college after all,” Patton laughed, “Though I suppose my art isn’t… super conventional, I still really enjoy it!” Patton looked up from his unpacking to meet eyes with Virgil. At that moment, Virgil could see a flicker of something in Patton he hadn’t seen yet in the unpredictable ball of energy- hesitation. Uncertainty.

 

“If you wanted, I could show you some of my paintings?” Patton’s voice was much more cautious than it had been before. Instantly, Virgil believed he understood. Sharing any sort of art- music, acting, paintings or otherwise, all of it was very vulnerable. Art of any kind required being open and honest and many pieces of art are very personal to the artist. Virgil could completely understand how even someone like Patton would be hesitant to share.

 

Virgil did his best to give a warm smile, though he guessed it probably looked a bit stupid coming from him.

 

“I would really like that, Patton.”

 

In all the smiles Virgil had seen from Patton, the smile he got from Patton right then was his favorite.

 


	2. first impressions

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> If you asked Logan what reminded him most of summer, he would tell you one of two things.

If you asked Logan what reminded him most of summer, he would tell you one of two things. The first would be the cool wood floors of the dance studio, music filling his ears as him and 4 other dancers went through their summer routines. 

 

The second would be the company of his insufferably loveable best friend.

 

“Logan, LOGAN come on, that was the turn right there! You’re going to make us late!” Roman, said insufferable yet still endearing best friend, was smacking his hand on the dashboard of Logan’s tiny car, trying to get his attention. Logan gritted his teeth, his knuckles white from his grip on his steering wheel. 

 

“I can hear you, there is no need to hit my car, Roman. And, for the fifth time, you haven’t even been to the camp before. I looked at the map, I know where we are going. You do not.” Roman huffed, crossing his arms, leaning back in the passenger seat. 

 

“Fine. When it turns out  _ I’m  _ right and  _ you  _ got us lost, I expect a full apology.” Logan rolled his eyes. 

 

“Lower your expectations then.” Roman gasped, feigning hurt as he pulled his hands to his chest. 

 

“How you wound me!” With a dramatic flourish, Roman pretended to faint, before popping right back up just moments later to mess with the radio station in the car. 

 

Being friends with someone like Roman Bloom was an acquired taste. If not for the fact that Logan student directed the school plays and musicals from freshman year onward, Logan would not have been friends with someone like Roman. Roman, from the very start of high school, was the most outspoken cast member in all 8 shows that the school put on in the 4 years the two of them were students there. Whether he was just some munchkin in Wizard of Oz or Jack Kelly in Newsies, Roman always made his presence known. 

 

Logan did not. But the director always seemed to put Logan in charge of reigning Roman in, and from then on they formed a bond Logan could only call interesting. 

 

5 years of friendship though, could not change the fact that riding in a car for 3 hours with Roman Bloom was akin to torture, mostly because there was no escaping his belting of showtunes when you were driving down a dirt road in the middle of nowhere. Whenever Logan expressed this though, requesting maybe he sing ‘just a bit quieter’ as they were in the confined space of the car, Roman would always scoff. 

 

_ “You know you love it, specs. I can hear you humming along.”  _

 

Logan was indeed humming along. Roman, unfortunately, knew him to a tee. 

 

After one more turn, a red sign appeared ahead in Logan’s line of sight.

 

“Hickory Forest Fine Arts Camp. That’s the place.” Logan affirmed, turning onto the street the sign pointed too. 

 

“Hurrah!” Roman cheered, rolling down his window, “What do you think it’s like?”

 

“The camp? Well, I assume like any normal summer camp, just with facilities included to work best for the various art forms of the campers.” 

 

Roman shook his head.

 

“No, no, I meant more like the experience. How many kids’ lives will we influence? What will the other counselors be like? Will we become a merry bunch of heroes in the artistic journeys of these young souls?” With each statement, Roman’s hand movements exhibited more and more grandeur. Logan shrugged, saying the only thing he ever could when Roman would present his numerous ‘What Ifs’ for the future:

 

“Possibly.”

 

After passing through Main Camp and heading south, Logan pulled up to the unit labeled “Stanza.”

 

“This is it, though it seems someone’s car is in front of that center cabin there, which is where we need to park to be able to-” Roman cut Logan off by reaching in front of him, laying on the horn of the car. Logan swatted his hands away. 

 

“Roman, that is not the correct usage of the car horn-” Before he could begin his lecture, a man with curly ash blond hair came barrelling out the door from the cabin labeled “Carroll”, running to the blue car parked in the Unit. Following him at a much slower pace was another man, this one with hair a deep purple. The second man waited at the top of the steps of the Carroll cabin. 

 

“Sorry, sorry! I’ll take care of this right now!” The blond man yelled to Logan and Roman. Before getting into the car, he turned to the other man with purple hair. 

 

“I’ll show you the paintings later I guess, Virgil. I’ll be right BACH!!” The blond man laughed, the one apparently named Virgil giving a grin and saluting as his friend jumped into the blue car, off to Main Camp. 

 

Pulling up, Roman eagerly jumped out of the car, taking in the forest around them. 

 

“Oh Logan, I have a good feeling about this summer!” Roman’s voice was wistful as he twirled around. Logan smiled at his friend. 

 

“I think I have a good feeling too.” 

 

Logan made his way to the back of the car, ready to start unpacking the bags they had somehow crammed into the small space until he realized the man with purple hair (Virgil, was it?) was walking past, head down as if to avoid Logan and Roman. Logan stopped what he was doing, walking towards him. 

 

“Hello, you must be one of the other counselors, my name is-” 

 

“Hey.” Virgil interrupted, continue to walk past, barely acknowledging Logan as he did so, sparing only a glance. Logan’s voice halted. He wasn’t sure what to do. 

 

But Roman seemed to know exactly what to do. He stepped up in front of Logan, facing Virgil. 

 

“Hey, stranger-”

 

“I’m pretty sure his name is Virgil.”

 

“Whatever! He was just trying to say hi to you, can you not bother to stop walking for a second to introduce yourself?” Roman’s fists were clenched. Logan bit the side of his cheek. He knew his friend had a tendency to get protective over those he cared for, but Logan could feel trouble brewing by the second. 

 

Virgil cocked his head, turning around. He threw his hands up in a sign of exasperation, walking back over to Logan and Roman. 

 

“Look, I just need to unpack my stuff back at my cabin. I figured we’d get all of the introduction stuff out of the way in like 20 minutes when the Unit Director is going to make us all hang out and repeat our introductions anyway. Excuse me for just trying to go past you guys in peace.” 

 

“That doesn’t mean you couldn't have just stopped for a second! Besides, that wasn’t even a proper apology.” Virgil rolled his dark brown eyes. 

 

“Fine. I’m sorry.” Roman huffed, taking a dangerous step closer to Virgil. Virgil had a few inches on Roman, and yet he still stared Virgil down. 

 

“Do you have an inability to be sincere? Besides, I’m not the one you should be apologizing to.” Roman threw a look to Logan, sympathy etched on his features. Virgil followed his gaze, sighing. He opened his mouth to say something, but Logan held out a hand to stop him. 

 

“You’re forgiven. I’m sure it was just a misunderstanding. We’ll see you when the Unit Director calls us together.” With that, Logan turned his full attention back to getting bags out of his car. Virgil took this as his sign to walk away, heading into the Alighieri cabin. 

 

Roman took his place by Logan’s side, pulling out bags with him. 

 

“You didn’t have to forgive him you know. He was being a real Debby Downer.” 

 

“I know I didn’t, but I’d rather not start making ill relationships with people we will be working with and living near for 2 months.” Logan raised an eyebrow, giving a look to Roman, who avoided eye contact. 

 

“Yeah yeah okay, I get the message. I just think he didn’t have to be that rude.” 

 

“He didn’t.” Logan’s voice was quiet. He couldn’t lie that it hurt that the first person he tried to meet at the camp had been so cold towards him, but he couldn’t let that get to his head. The less he dwelled on it, the better these two months would be. Roman sighed, pulling Logan into a side hug. 

 

“I’ll go beat him up for you.”

 

“Roman. No.” Logan laughed, Roman joining in. 

 

As the two began unpacking, the front door of the Unit Director cabin opened, revealing what Logan assumed to be, well, the Unit Director. 

 

“Fantastic! You two must be Logan and Roman. I’m Thomas, your Unit Director for the summer! With you two here, that’s all of the counselors, so after you guys get settled in, I’ll be calling you out for a meeting at one of the picnic tables over there. In the meantime, let’s get you two your information!” 

 

After a brief meeting in the Unit Director cabin (which both Logan and Roman thought was horrendously messy- ‘How could anyone get anything done in there?’ Roman had asked after they left), Roman and Logan got their schedules, information packets, and cabin assignments. 

 

“How come you got Shakespeare?” Roman remarked as they walked out of the Unit Director cabin. Logan shrugged. 

 

“It was probably random chance, but it is fitting that I get the bard, I am a larger fan of him than you are,” Logan replied coyly. Roman gasped, leaning his weight on Logan as they walked. 

 

“The lies you spread… they hurt me so… everyone knows my dedication to Billy Shakespeare goes all the way back to my 10th-grade direction of the Scottish play complete with dogs.” 

 

“A dog peed on the stage during that performance. Would William Shakespeare have wanted that?” Roman gazed off into the distance. 

 

“Absolutely.” Roman turned to Logan, making eye contact, and the two laughed. 

 

The two parted ways to their respective cabins, Logan making awkward eye contact with Virgil as he entered the Shakespeare cabin, just to the right of Alighieri where Virgil was. Virgil seemed to be carrying out what Logan identified as a cello case. 

 

Virgil said nothing, so Logan said nothing back. 

 

After unloading all of his items into the Shakespeare cabin, Logan took his car out to Main Camp, dropping it off and heading out on the bike trails. 

 

Logan almost wished he had just taken the long trip on the main roads to bike back to the unit. He hadn’t yet looked at the map for the bike trails and didn’t have a very clear idea of where he was going other than south. Whenever forks appeared in the trail, Logan always took his best bet based on where the trail seemed to go further down the way. 

 

At what Logan guessed was about half-way back to Stanza, he noticed someone else on the trail, without a bike, examining something in the brush next to the trail. As he got closer, Logan recognized him as the blond man from Stanza unit. Curious, he hopped off his bike, running up to him. 

 

“Excuse me, are you okay?” Logan asked. The man jumped up, and the sound of something scurrying off in the grass was heard. Sheepishly, the man smiled.

 

“I’m fine! I just get a bit distracted when I’m walking is all. I saw the  _ cutest  _ rabbit and I was trying to get it to come out closer, but then you showed up an it ran away.” The man sighed in disappointment, but let a smile return to his face as he looked back up at Logan. 

 

Logan blinked slowly. 

 

“You were trying to get it to… come closer? You know wild rabbits are not nearly as friendly as domesticated ones. They are often territorial and aggressive, not to mention the fact the diseases it could be carrying.” 

 

“It would have been fine! Animals love me, especially bunnies!” The man waved him off, skipping down the road. 

 

Logan was at a loss for words. He once again jogged to catch up with the man, bike in tow. 

 

“Well, um. Anyway. I believe I am a counselor in the same unit as you? If you are the owner of the blue Volkswagen beetle, that is.” Logan said. The man turned to him, eyes wide, smile growing. 

 

“Oh my goodness, you were in the car behind me! This is amazing that we ran into each other!” 

 

“It’s really not all that crazy-” Logan began, but before he could finish, the man stuck his hand out for Logan. 

 

“I’m Patton!” Patton waited patiently while Logan cautiously took his hand. 

 

Wow. Patton had a tight grip. 

 

“Logan Krelborn.” 

 

“It’s great to meet you Logan Krelborn!” Patton gave a large grin before turning his attention back to the trail, skipping on ahead. 

 

This was going to be an interesting walk. 

 

For most of the time, Patton and Logan walked in silence. Whenever Logan would try and strike up a conversation (‘So what’s your major?’ ‘What sort of art do you like?’ ‘What’s up with Virgil? Do you know him?’) Patton would either give a wistful short answer (‘Well I just met him today, but he seems like a really cool guy!’) or he would ramble on for so long Logan would lose track of what he had even asked (Logan would not tortue anyone so much as to repeat Patton’s 5 minute speech on how you can relate colors to friends with ‘color PALlets’, as Patton had dubbed them.) Not only that, but every few minutes Patton would be distracted by something in the forest, be it a strange plant or a helpless animal. 

 

Patton was, to say the least, overwhelming. 

 

The two had nearly made it to Stanza, Patton stopping to check out some curious looking flowers when a voice Logan knew too well echoed its way out to them. 

 

“YOU SCOUNDREL! TAKE IT BACK.” 

 

Patton and Logan’s eyes met, and almost simultaneously they made a break for it towards the unit. 

 

Upon arriving at Stanza, Logan and Patton found Roman and Virgil in each other’s faces. Virgil looked like a mixture between disinterested and annoyed while he was holding the neck of his cello in one hand and the bow in the other. Roman, on the other hand, looked all sorts of offended, and not in the way he would pretend to be offended when Logan would tease him, but actually angry. 

 

Virgil waved around his cello bow as he spoke.

 

“What do you even mean? All I told you was to turn your damn music down.” 

 

“As if it was any bother to you!”

 

“It WAS. I was trying to play my cello and your belting to outdated Disney songs was distracting!”

 

“First of all, how DARE you diss classic Disney, and secondly, why are you even out here playing? I thought you were too busy unpacking to do anything else, like saying hi to your fellow counselors.” Virgil’s face flushed with embarrassment. 

 

“It’s not my fault I thought it would take longer to unpack, and then suddenly everyone was leaving. Also, news flash, this is a fine arts camp, not a ‘yell and pretend like that’s singing’ camp.” 

 

“Well _ Scare-old and the Purple Crayon _ , maybe I didn’t want to hear your boring cello playing. Who even likes the cello anyway?” Virgil let out a joyless laugh. 

 

“You know, for someone so keen on singing like he’s a Disney prince and acting like he’s everyone’s protector from evil, you sure aren’t very chivalrous or prince-like.”

 

“So you admit that you’re the evil here?”

 

Logan knew he had to step in to stop this before it got out of hand. He knew that Roman could get easily heated in arguments, and if this went further it would spell disaster for any potential relationships between the counselors over the summer. And yet, he found himself glued to his spot. Looking forward to the Unit Director cabin steps, Logan saw that Thomas was in a similar situation- too shocked by what was unfolding on to find the means to do anything. 

 

Luckily, Patton was not Logan or Thomas, and so he physically ran in between the two fighting. Instantly, both took a step back, Virgil’s scowl dropping into a look of regret, and Roman’s face from anger to confusion.  _ Right _ . Roman hadn’t yet met Patton, so having a stranger jump between his fight was probably just a bit baffling. 

 

“Now kiddos! There’s no need to fight, surely this can be talked out in a civil matter.” Patton looked hopefully between the two. Roman and Virgil both looked towards Patton before returning their gazes to each other, sympathy fading from their expressions as they did so. Patton let out a nervous laugh, putting a hand on both Roman and Virgil’s arms. 

 

“Let’s all just take a seat and figure this out, okay? It’s only the first day, I’m sure once we work this out you two will get along!” 

 

Roman laughed. 

 

“Get along? With doom and gloom over here? Not happening.” Virgil rolled his eyes, walking away over to his open cello case over on the picnic table and putting his cello away. 

 

“Well I was willing to give it a try, but seems Sir Sing-a-Lot over here doesn’t want to. Oh well. What a pity.” Virgil’s voice was dripping with sarcasm as he packed up his cello and started walking towards the Alighieri cabin. 

 

“Now Virgil, we aren’t done figuring this out,” Patton said, voice trying to be sweet, but Logan could hear the strain in it. Though he didn’t show it, Logan guessed he was probably stressed from the situation at hand. 

 

“I think he’s done, so I’m out.” Virgil let the wooden door of the cabin slam behind him, as silence fell amongst the rest of them. 

 

Logan looked over to Roman. Logan had known Roman for a long time. They spent high school and their first year of college together, and by now, Logan prided himself on knowing Roman well enough to decipher how he was feeling based on his body language and facial expressions. 

 

For once, Logan couldn’t tell what Roman was feeling. 

 

An awkward laugh broke the silence as Thomas walked down the steps. 

 

“How about we hold off orientation for another hour while things cool down? Uh… you can all go and decorate your cabins or unpack or something. I’ll be right back.” Thomas was obviously making this up as he went, as he rushed off to the Alighieri cabin, cautiously knocking on the door and heading inside. 

 

Roman took a deep breath, shaking his hands out. Logan walked over to be by his side, and by the time he got there, Roman had composed himself, complete with his best smile to give to Patton. 

 

“Not my finest moment, and not exactly how I wanted to meet the fourth counselor in the unit. Sorry about that, pleasure to meet you, I’m Roman Bloom.” 

 

Patton gave a sympathetic smile. 

 

“That’s fine, I’m sure it’ll all work out in the end! I’m Patton Woods!” Roman smiled.

 

“That’s an oddly appropriate name.”

 

Patton giggled, taking a seat at the wooden picnic table “I guess you could say I’m…  _ Patt on woods _ .” Roman let out a boisterous laugh. 

 

_ Oh my god. These two together will be the end of me. _

 

After a few more ‘getting to know you’s with Patton, they all split off to their cabins, Patton and Roman off to the right, and Logan off to the left. 

 

Logan had brought decorations with him, but they were few and far between. A few posters with quotes of his favorite academics, 2 whiteboards and an array of colorful markers, one for making chore charts for the campers, and the other just for decoration (he had yet to figure out what he wanted to put on it), and then a bag of glow in the dark stars. 

 

He tossed the bag in his hand. In his high school bedroom back at his parents home, he had these all over the ceiling, made in constellations as accurate as Logan could have gotten them at the time. He always enjoyed having that simple decoration in his room. Whenever he couldn’t sleep, looking at the stars always helped him at least relax. 

 

He brought this new bag thinking the campers he would get would appreciate it the same, but suddenly doubt sprouted in his mind. Maybe it was just a bit too childish for what would be middle and high school boys. He wasn’t sure. 

 

Just as he was about to stuff the bag back into his suitcase, a soft knock came at the door. The volume of the knock ruled out Roman immediately, so Logan expected to find either Thomas or Patton at the door. 

 

Instead, it was Virgil, scratching the back of his neck, avoiding eye contact. 

 

“Uh. Hey. Can I come in?” Logan thought for a second, then nodded, moving for Virgil to move in. 

 

Logan couldn’t deny Virgil looked incredibly uncomfortable, arms crossed defensively against his chest, eyes downcast, foot tapping. 

 

“I just wanted to say-” He swallowed, sighing. “Sorry. I’m sorry. I was rude not to just stop for a second and actually introduce myself. Real dick move. So, I’m sorry.” 

 

Logan fiddled with the bag of stars in his hand. 

 

“I already forgave you, this was unnecessary.” Virgil laughed, taking Logan slightly off guard. 

 

“Come on, we both know you didn’t really mean that when you said it. I wouldn’t have.” 

 

Logan swallowed. 

 

“Well. Nevertheless, I forgive you now. Besides, I believe after that scene out there, I’m not the one who deserves the apology right now.”

 

Virgil's voice went quiet. 

 

“I know. I’m making my way over there. I was just way less anxious about coming over to you than to the other guy.”

 

“Roman.”

 

“Right. Roman.” 

 

Silence filled the room as neither spoke. Virgil threw his hands down, and only now could Logan see they were slightly shaking. 

 

“Can we make this less awkward and start over?” Virgil looked desperately at Logan, holding out his hand. 

 

“I’m Virgil Addams, and I swear I’m not a jerk all of the time.” Logan let a smile creep to his face as he took Virgil’s hand.

 

“Logan Krelborn, and I believe you. Also, Roman can be a bit extreme and stubborn sometimes, so I’m sure he deserved at least 2% of what you ‘dished out’ to him.” Virgil laughed, as did Logan, and the tension floated away from the room, at least partially. Virgil looked like he had been holding his breath the whole time and that he had finally been able to exhale. 

 

Virgil’s eyes caught the bag of stars still in Logan’s free hand.

 

“Were you going to put those up? I used to love decorating my room with those as a kid.” 

 

_ As a kid. _ Well, that wasn’t much helping Logan’s insecurities about putting them up. He tossed it around in his hands again.

 

“Do you think that it’s a good idea?” 

 

“To decorate with those? Yeah, why not. It’s a pretty sweet decoration.”

 

Logan sighed, looking up to Virgil. 

 

“Would you want to assist in putting these up with me? To make up for before and clear the air. And after you apologize to Roman, of course.”

 

Virgil shrugged, but a smile was present on his face. 

 

“Sure, why not.” 

 

Virgil was back to Logan’s cabin in about 5 minutes. When Logan had asked how it had gone, Virgil just shrugged.  _ Not well _ , Logan took it, though he supposed Roman would give him all of the details later. While Logan understood Roman’s frustration towards Virgil, now while they were still newly acquaintances would be the best time to make things right before things spiraled too far.

 

With Virgil’s extra few inches in height, he was put in charge of standing on an old wooden chair and placing the stars, while Logan directed him exactly where to put them from below, so they were as accurate as possible to the locations of actual constellations on a constellation map. 

 

They didn’t talk much outside of Logan’s directions, but unlike before, the silence was more comfortable. Virgil was much less ‘extra’ than Roman was, and while Logan wouldn’t trade his best friend for anything in the world, he wouldn’t deny the pleasant change of having someone a bit more laid back around.

 

By the end of the hour, Virgil joined Logan on the floor of the cabin to look up at the stars. 

 

“Pretty awesome,” Virgil said. Logan nodded. Logan was not totally okay with Virgil yet. After all, first impressions say a lot about a person, and Logan was not a fan of people who would casually insult his best friend. 

 

But he had apologized to both him and Roman soon after the whole debacle. He had looked sincere. He had helped Logan decorate. 

 

He didn’t seem quite so bad.

 

“Yes, I would have to agree.” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> oof another chapter already! i have so much planned that im honestly so excited to write and share oh my gosh im very excited. im not sure if the next one will be out this fast, but hopefully it wont be too long!! anyway, i hope you guys liked this chapter, let me know what you thought if you like!! :D


	3. confusion

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> If you asked Roman what reminded him most of summer, he would tell you the beating heat of the stage lights, him and his friends performing whatever summer showcase shows the local theater had decided to put on that year.

If you asked Roman what reminded him most of summer, he would tell you the beating heat of the stage lights, him and his friends performing whatever summer showcase shows the local theater had decided to put on that year.

 

The theater was always an escape for Roman. Theater was away from school drama that always seemed to follow him around, away from stressful assignments, away from trying to be someone else, to keep cool because it felt like all eyes were always on him. Theater allowed him to just _be_ , which is all Roman wanted. To be Roman Bloom- actor, sometimes an idiot, and best friend to the most workaholic person in the world, Logan Krelborn.

 

Roman wanted to force Logan to take a break sometimes. In high school, it was the worst. After school, Logan student-directed plays and musicals until 5. From 5:30 to 7:30, Logan had his daily dance classes. After that, Logan would stay up far later than what was healthy to get the homework done for the multitude of Advanced Placement classes he was in. Then, he would wake up early to go to the student council meetings before school. The process repeats. Not even to mention the scheduling conflicts between the school plays and his dance performances, which Logan always seemed to work out in the end, but only after hours of stressing.

 

It got better once the two went off to college, but not much.

 

All Roman wanted to do was take Logan away for a summer, away from their hometown, to do something new and something that wouldn’t _feel_ like work. Roman thought working at a fine arts camp he had found online was the perfect idea.

 

Now, as the heat of the sun pounded on Roman, he was starting to wish he was back on stage at his local theater, doing summer as normal. But he wasn’t. Instead, he was waiting for the Unit Director to arrive, sitting at the picnic table uncomfortably across from someone he had just fought with an hour ago.

 

Virgil’s apology had been lackluster, to say the least. For one, when he had entered the Poe cabin, Virgil’s face was unreadable. Maybe Roman would describe it as a mixture of bitterness, confusion, and anger, but he couldn’t say for sure which it predominantly was. Either way, instead of focusing on Roman, the one Virgil was supposed to be apologizing too, he was focusing on the array of decorations Roman had put up around the room.

 

_Roman cleared his throat._

 

_“Are you here to say something, or are you just going to oggle like that?”_

 

_Virgil’s attention was switched to Roman. While when he had entered, Virgil had looked like he might have felt guilty, now he looked annoyed. He opened his mouth, clearly ready to start another argument, but he closed it just as soon, taking instead a heavy breath._

 

_“Look, I’m sorry about earlier. I should have… politely asked you to turn your music down. And even then, I shouldn’t have insulted you, I guess.”_

 

_“You guess?” Virgil groaned._

 

_“Come on, at least I’m making an effort here. I said I was sorry, I did my part.” With that, Virgil left, leaving Roman alone once again._

 

At the picnic table, Roman sat next to Logan, Virgil and Patton across from them, you could cut the tension with a knife. Logan and Virgil seemed to have made up at least, though Roman always thought Logan was too quick when giving out forgiveness. Roman himself wasn’t totally buying the nature of Virgil’s apologies.

 

Patton, for what it was worth, was trying to make the wait less awkward by making puns.

 

“Did you hear about the man who started a one-man band? I heard he was instrumental to its success.”

 

Roman offered a laugh, Logan groaned, and Virgil seemed checked out of the whole conversation, off in his own thoughts. The tension was not much alleviated despite Patton’s best efforts.

 

The moment Thomas stepped out of the Unit Director cabin, Roman let out a sigh of relief. Anything except this awkwardness would be nice. Thomas gave a hopeful smile, clapping his hands together.

 

“Alright, gang! So I know we started a bit… later… than intended, so we'll need to be leaving shortly to Kent theater for the camp-wide counselor orientation. That wasn't really the plan to do that first but, well…” Thomas trailed off, giving an awkward laugh.

 

Definitely not helping the tension.

 

“Anyway! We can do unit information after. I assume you've all at least met?”

 

The four looked at each other from across the table, sharing glances before looking back to Thomas. They nodded their heads.

 

“Great! So we’ll be walking with the Parchment unit over to Kent, so let's head over!” Thomas gestured for them to all stand and follow him. Logan stood right away, Roman begrudgingly following, and Patton practically pulling Virgil off of the table to leave.

 

As they reached the trail, Roman saw a group of 5 counselors waiting, who Roman assumed were the ones from Parchment. They approached, and one of them wearing and orange beanie stepped forward. Thomas’ smile turned from one underlined with stress to one of genuine joy. He ran forward to the counselor with the beanie, hugging them and turning to the 4 from Stanza unit.

 

“Guys, this is Joan! They're the Unit Director at Parchment unit and my best friend.” Thomas stretched out the vowels in ‘best friend’, keeping an arm around Joan and leaning into them. Joan rolled their eyes but smiled wide.

 

Thomas gestured towards the 4 Stanza unit counselors. “This is Logan, Roman, Patton, and Virgil. They’re all new counselors this year.”

 

One by one, everyone started to introduce themselves. As well as Joan, Thomas seemed to be close friends with another one of the counselors from Parchment named Talyn. Those three took the lead down the trail as the group of 10 headed towards Kent Theater.

 

Roman and Logan stuck towards the back while everyone else moved ahead.

 

“Hey, so Virgil walked out of your cabin with you earlier. What did he say to you?” Roman asked, voice as hushed as he could make it so Virgil, up ahead talking with Patton, wouldn’t hear. Logan raised an eyebrow, eyes fixed forward.

 

“He just came an apologized and then helped me with some decorating. I assumed he had apologized to you as well?” Roman let out a dry laugh.

 

“If you could even call it an apology. He definitely didn’t mean it.” Logan winced slightly.

 

“What do you mean? How can you possibly deduce that he didn’t mean it if he came and told you he was sorry outright?”

 

Roman crossed his arms. “It just felt like he didn’t mean it. That’s all.”

 

“Roman. You’re being stubborn. If you accept his apology as fact, then all of the drama can be over with.” Roman gasped.

 

“I am not stubborn! If anything, he is the stubborn one.” Roman accused, voice getting louder, attracting attention from a few of the Parchment counselors up ahead.

 

Drama followed Roman around in high school, and it wasn’t very hard to see why. Roman silenced himself, eyes fixing to the dirt trail as he kicked his feet. Logan sighed, placing a hand on Roman’s arm.

 

“Just. Try not to let it bother you too much. Virgil did his part in apologizing. The rest is up to you whether or not you want to accept the apology.” Roman nodded his head, hooking his arm in Logan’s.

 

“Oh, Logan, whatever would I do without your sage advice?”

 

“You would be a bigger mess than you already are.”

 

“What? I’m not a mess!” Roman laughed, Logan joining in.

 

Before they knew it, they had arrived at Kent Theater. Roman wasn’t sure what he had expected from it. Maybe, because he was so used to his local theater, he was expecting something older, ornate, but not too fancy. Or perhaps because of the architecture of most of the buildings in camp, he expected it to have the rustic camping sort of vibe.

 

Instead, the building in front of them was a very large, modern-looking building that was out of place in the middle of the forest. A white building, where when walking inside, it was like any sort of modern theater you would see. The floors were a white marble, and the walls a white painted brick. Even the water fountain was one of the newer ones, with the sensors for filling water bottles. Down one wing, there was a series of classrooms and studios, and down the other was the entrance to the auditorium itself, all stemming from the entrance, a grand hall with a whole series of paintings covering the walls.

 

This was where Roman would be for the summer.

 

It was new and so very different from the theaters that he knew.

 

And he was excited.

 

Many of the counselors from other units had already congregated in the main hall of the theater. No one yet wearing the shirts from camp that uniformed style, everyone had distinct styles that shone through in the room; counselors wearing anything from vintage to almost avant-garde modern, unique combinations of color (Roman assumed he fit into this category, what with his bright red bomber jacket, white jeans, and red and gold boots,) and so much hair dye. If you lined all of the counselors up based on hair color, you could make a full rainbow, and Roman thought that was pretty amazing.

 

Roman and Logan caught up with Thomas, Patton, and Virgil, so as to get seats together as a unit once the auditorium doors opened. As they approached, Roman overheard Thomas and Virgil telling Patton about an event that happened near the end of each of the camp sessions over the summer.

 

“All Camp... Sing?”

 

“Yeah, it’s where the counselors of a unit write a song about the camp and the unit, and they perform it with the campers of each session as part of a competition. Best song and performance win certificates and lunch privileges and such.”

 

“But the counselors predetermine all the awards beforehand to make sure each unit gets a win in something.”

 

Patton gasped. “Virgil!” he berated, “Don’t spoil it!” Virgil held up his hands defensively, laughing.

 

“Sorry, sorry.”

 

“Did I hear… write a song?” Roman jumped in, Logan in tow. Thomas nodded.

 

“You did indeed! It’s a really fun process. Most of the time the songs turn out pretty good because a lot of the counselors are band majors, but sometimes you get a unit where everyone is in dance or Shakespearean theater or visual arts and the songs turn out hilariously bad. It’s all in good fun. We’ll be writing our song later this week!”

 

Roman’s eyes were practically sparkling.

 

“This is amazing, how come I never knew about this! Worry not, dear co-counselors, I can write us the perfect song!” Roman pointed his finger in the air, taking on a face of determination.

 

Virgil snickered. “Have you ever even written a song before?”

 

“As a matter of fact, Marina and the _Die_ -monds, I have. I’ll have you know I’m quite the master at the ukulele. What about you? Can you even play an instrument?”

 

“You’re asking the kid who can play 4 instruments that? Well, that sure is ironic.” A voice came from behind Roman that he didn’t recognize. Virgil’s eyes widened, and his posture straightened as he looked at something behind Roman.

 

Roman followed his gaze to a man standing behind him, a black leather jacket on, black aviators, and Starbucks in hand.

 

“Remy?”

 

“Literally who else would it be, Virgil.” Virgil smiled, pushing past Roman and standing in front of Remy. The two did a complex, one-handed handshake, flawlessly executing it as if they had done it hundreds of times before.

 

Quite possibly that was the nerdiest thing Roman had ever seen in his life, and his best friend was Logan Krelborn.

 

Remy turned his attention back to Roman. Remy was at least an inch or two taller than Virgil, who himself was at least a few inches taller than Roman, leaving Roman feeling slightly awkward as Remy looked down on him.

 

“Anyway, yeah this kid is practically a prodigy. Any instrument you got? Give him a day and he’ll be like Mozart or some shit at it.” Remy tousled Virgil’s hair, who swatted his hand away.

 

“As if.” Virgil scoffed. Remy lowered his sunglasses to look Virgil in the eye.

 

“You literally started learning cello while at camp. Was that the summer after your freshman year? Your first year in the Poe cabin? I slept through a lot of that year. Anyway, Missy from orchestra let you borrow hers and you learned it pretty well by the time camp was done, and then went off and bought your own. How is that not prodigy levels?”

 

Roman’s mind fuzzed throughout the conversation. Okay, so apparently Virgil knew 4 instruments and was some kind of musical genius. Also, he went to this camp before, in the Poe cabin? _Roman’s_ cabin?

 

Roman snapped himself back into the conversation.

 

“What else do you play then?” Roman had meant it to be in the tone of his other accusations, but genuine curiosity seeped in. Virgil closed off a bit, smile fading.

 

“Oh. Piano, trumpet, cello, and guitar. Those are the 4.” Virgil’s voice was quiet like it wasn’t something he wanted to brag about. Roman was taken aback.

 

“But those instruments have nearly nothing to do with each other!” After he said it, Remy laughed, knocking Roman on the head lightly.

 

“Like I said. Prodigy. He just learns what he wants. Trumpet for marching band, guitar for jazz band, cello for orchestra, and piano for who-the-hell-knows-why, just because he can.” The longer Remy bragged about Virgil, the more simultaneously uncomfortable and flattered Virgil looked. His face was red, and Roman couldn’t tell if it was from embarrassment or something else.

 

Before he had time to ponder longer though, a few of the adults teaching at the camp opened the auditorium doors. Remy pushed his glasses back up.

 

“Guess this is goodbye for now or whatever, I’ve got to get back with the Forte unit. We have to catch up, Vee, you would not believe who is in my unit this year. I never thought Declan would-”

 

Before Remy could finish, he was swept up into the crowd of counselors entering the auditorium. Roman started to move forward towards the doors with the rest of the Stanza unit, but he realized Virgil wasn’t moving. Not just that, but his face had gone pale, and his hands were shaking ever so slightly. People moved around them and pooled into the auditorium until it was just the two of them.

 

“Hey, _Purple Rain_ , you okay?” Roman let out a laughed, but it was awkward and stilted. Virgil was frozen and looked almost like he was going to be sick.

 

Virgil shook his head out of his daze, running his hands through his hair. A look of aggravation replaced the one of shock that had briefly adorned his face.

 

“I’m fine, let’s go or we’re going to be late to this stupid meeting,” Virgil grumbled, voice low and raspy.

 

Roman was an actor. He could recognize a bad performance when he saw one.

 

Just like Roman had felt when Virgil apologized, he felt like Virgil was not telling him the truth, which was beyond frustrating when Roman had stayed back to ask Virgil if he was okay.

 

Nevertheless, Virgil went off to the auditorium, and Roman had no choice but to follow as the doors nearly closed on him.

 

As the two entered, Patton quickly spotted them and waved them over to where he had saved two spots on either side of him. Roman moved past him to the seat to Patton’s left, between Patton and Logan. Virgil sat on the aisle seat to Patton’s right.

 

A woman probably in her mid-thirties stepped onto the stage, taking a seat at the edge and swinging her legs over. She introduced herself as the Camp Director and started running down the responsibilities of being a camp counselor and what the camp experience was going to be like.

 

Roman did his best to focus, but his mind kept drifting towards the look of Virgil’s face when it had paled. If Roman didn’t know any better, he would call that look one of fear, but fear of what?

 

While the woman began talking camp outfit protocol, Logan leaned over to Roman, talking in a whisper.

 

“What happened out there? Why were you two late?” Logan sighed, “You two didn’t fight again, did you? Granted, that would have been a short fight judging by how soon you joined us, which is an improvement, but it’s still the first day and-”

 

“Lo, slow down. We weren’t fighting, it was just that… I don’t know. Virgil got all weird, that was all.” Logan raised an eyebrow.

 

“What happened?” Roman shrugged.

 

“Remy said something and then he... got weird.”

 

Logan pondered for a moment. “What sort of thing did Remy say?”

 

Roman sighed. “I don’t know, it didn’t seem important to me so I didn’t bother to remember… something about someone who Remy and Virgil used to go to camp with I think?” Logan hummed in response, and without a word, turned his attention back to the Camp Director.

 

Roman shifted in his seat, rolling his shoulders.

 

Virgil Addams confused him. He was frustrating and mean and gloomy in the first hours they had known each other, and then all of the sudden he was a musical prodigy, friends with this seemingly cool guy who he had a nerdy handshake with, and then he was scared, frozen in a hallway at the mention of some former camper- a musical rival maybe?

 

Roman didn’t know what to make of Virgil Addams.

 

Then again, as Logan kept reminding him, it was still the first day.

 

The meeting came to a close, and Roman and the rest of the Stanza unit decided it best to stay back and let everyone rush out of the auditorium ahead of them. Even while talking with Logan, Roman couldn’t help but notice how Virgil was purposely hanging his head down, as if to avoid any potential eye contact with other counselors.

 

After a minute or so, with the auditorium virtually empty, the 5 of them filed out, out of the auditorium, out of Kent theater, and onto the trail.

 

Thomas and Patton took the front of the group, talking about their respective pets, sharing photos from their phones.

 

Logan and Roman followed after, Logan giving a scathing and in-depth review of the latest book he had read.

 

At the rear was Virgil. Silent. Before, he had gotten along well enough with Patton it had seemed (Roman would never understand how that friendship would work, but he digressed,) so now Virgil just being completely separated from the group felt like maybe it was wrong.

 

But Roman did nothing about it, keeping his attention on his best friend’s unknowingly comedic book review.

 

Once back at the unit, each of the counselors got their 3 Hickory Forest Fine Arts Camp uniform shirts (red polo shirts with “Hickory Forest Fine Arts Camp” embroidered in white on the upper left of the shirt) as well as their counselor badges with their names on them.

 

The rest of the first day went by in a blur. After Thomas went over some of the unit things he had been unable to before (such as unit rules, making chores for the campers to keep cabins clean, checking everyone's schedules to make sure someone was at Stanza at all times in case of emergency, All Camp Sing songwriting information, and all sorts of stuff just pertaining to Stanza and its rules as a unit,) they went to lunch, and were given the day to explore camp and get a general layout to know their ways around.

 

Roman had spent that time with Logan, mostly exploring Main Camp. In the camp store, Roman caught sight of a red bomber not too dissimilar to his own, with the Hickory Forest Fine Arts Camp logo embroidered to the back.

 

Roman was a sucker for red bombers, what could he say. He bought the jacket.

 

After Main Camp, the second place Logan and Roman spent time exploring was over by Kent Theater and Sayers Dance Hall, where the two would be spending most of their time, Logan in Sayers and Roman in Kent, respectively.

 

By the time they were done, dinner was eaten, and everyone went off to their respective units and cabins for the night, Thomas warning that tomorrow was going to be “some fun team bonding activities” which Virgil looked mortified at the mention of.

 

The sun fell, and Roman was left alone in his cabin.

 

It felt weird, to say the least, to be in the big empty Poe cabin by himself. Though he had done his best to decorate it and make it seem a bit less bare bones, it didn’t help the fact that there were 10 empty bunks in the room, and there was just him staring at the ceiling, lost in his own thoughts, running through the events of the day.

 

Trees scraped against the cabin windows and moonlight poured in as Roman drifted to sleep.

 

Roman was uncertain as to how this summer was going to go based on that first day. He was, admittedly, scared about the endless possibilities of what could happen, but that made the adventure of it all the more exciting.

 

This would be an interesting summer.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> roman is literally the hardest character to write for me, the chapter youre reading is the 3rd rewrite of chapter three wh o ops. anyway, got some expositional stuff out of the way, oooo we got some mystery (is it really a mystery? who knows), and next chapter takes place over a few days, and then we're into the actual camp experience! what fun! 
> 
> anyways, as always i hope you guys liked this one!! :)


	4. teamwork

If you asked Patton what reminded him most of summer, he would tell you Santa Monica.

 

Growing up, Patton lived a few hours away from Santa Monica, so he didn’t go all that often. But every summer, his family would always make a point to bring Patton and his younger sisters up to Santa Monica for a day and spend it at the beach, go to the pier and do everything they possibly could in what little time they had.

 

As Patton got older, and problems arose in his family, the trips to Santa Monica became impossible to do with all of them. So, he would drive his friends up and they would all go to the beach together, having the same fun Patton once had with his siblings.

 

Then Patton started painting, and he would go to Santa Monica alone, painting the beach at sunrise; the colors of the pier, the eclectic strangers that would come in and out of the town by the day. That was his favorite part about it. Santa Monica felt so alive compared to where Patton lived, and he loved to capture that in art, even if it meant getting there early and leaving late, taking the long drive home in the dark of early morning.

 

The first morning after arriving at Hickory Forest Fine Arts Camp, Patton woke up at 5 am, and, still in his pajamas, took the walk across camp to the lake.

 

The beach couldn’t compare to Santa Monica in the morning, but it was still nice. For one, the water at the Hickory Forest lake was clear. As far out as Patton could see, the water looked crystal clear. The water was still, only being disrupted by the occasional fish jumping in the water.

 

Patton sat on the small area of sand at the shore of the lake. He closed his eyes, and he breathed, and he dreamed of Santa Monica, so much closer to home than where he had flown himself off to.

 

As the sun rose higher, Patton knew he had to get back to the Unit. At some point soon, they would be heading off to breakfast, and Patton didn’t want to miss that.

 

Upon returning to Stanza, Patton found Logan sitting at one of the picnic tables, a mug of what Patton assumed to be coffee in hand. While Patton still sported his morning look, pajamas, curly hair messy and out of control, Logan had seemingly already gotten ready for the morning, dressed in the camp uniform shirt and some black shorts, dark hair combed back.

 

Patton jumped down next to Logan, who jumped and nearly spilled his coffee. As put together as Logan looked, it was clear he wasn’t quite awake yet. Patton laughed as Logan tried to recompose himself as if nothing happened.

 

“Ah, Patton. It’s you.”

 

“That is my name, Logan! Nice to see you up bright and early!” Logan stared down into his coffee, taking a long sip. He took a deep breath.

 

“Yes, likewise.”

 

Patton felt like maybe Logan wasn’t a conversationalist.

 

That hadn’t stopped Patton from making friends before though.

 

“Well, I went down to the lake this morning, and you know, I _lake_ it very much! If you have time, you should head down there!” Patton giggled, looking expectantly at Logan.

 

Logan slowly looked up to Patton.

 

“Was that a-” he cut himself off, shaking his head, “It is far too early for puns,” he muttered, attention back to his coffee. Patton swatted his arm, which seemed to take Logan off guard.

 

“It’s never too early for a good joke! Laughter is the best thing to help you wake up!” Logan blinked.

 

“Is that something scientifically substantiated or did you just make that up?” Patton shrugged.

 

“I’ve always found it to be true for myself!”

 

Logan nodded, “Well. If you will excuse me, I’m going to go refill my coffee.” He stood, walking towards the Unit Director Cabin office, where the kitchen for the Stanza unit was.

 

“Don’t drop your mug, it’s not time for a coffee _break_ yet!” Patton called after.

 

Logan ignored him.

 

Patton was alone, and he exhaled as his smile faded. States away, he had friends, he had the sun, he had Santa Monica.

 

Here, he was living next door to someone he was fairly sure didn’t like him.

 

Patton made his way back to the Carroll cabin. He was quite proud with how he had decorated it, complete with fairy lights all around the cabin wherever he could put them, posters with puns and jokes, photos of his friends back home, and a specific wall left blank, his Polaroid camera sitting by it. Patton had hoped he would be able to fill it with camp memories over the course of the summer.

 

Patton got himself dressed, putting on the camp uniform shirt, a pair of blue jeans, and wrapping a gray camp sweater, that he got at the camp store the day prior, around his shoulders, lastly putting on his glasses. Walking to the bathrooms in the unit, Patton managed his curly hair into something a bit less wild, and, giving himself a bright smile in the mirror, set off to have what he was determined to make a great day.

 

Breakfast was quiet. After his second cup of coffee, Logan was much more awake, and he and Thomas were talking about something involving chemical engineering together. Thomas himself was acting just as awake, but Patton noticed the ever so slight bags around his eyes.

 

Virgil and Roman didn’t even try to act like they were awake. Virgil hid in a black and white Hickory Forest hoodie, not talking to or acknowledging anyone. Roman, for his part, made an effort, talking to Patton about various hilarious stage mistakes in his time in the theater, but every so often, the hand he was resting his face on would slip and Roman would nearly faceplant into his food.

 

Patton stayed smiling. He had nothing if not hope that things would turn out great.

 

\---

 

“Virgil left- No, left! Your other left!”

 

“What other left? I only have one left Roman, and I’m going that way!”

 

“My left, your right, whatever! Just, the other direction, dark and stormy.”

 

_Thomas’ Totally Tubular Team Building Activity Number 1: lead your blindfolded teammate through an obstacle course with only your voice._

 

Thomas had started off splitting them into teams, Logan with Patton, and Roman with Virgil. ( _“But why can’t I be with Logan?” “Because Roman, you already know him. This is about learning to work with new people!”_ )

 

Patton and Virgil were blindfolded, led to the beginning of 2 short obstacle courses that Thomas had put together made with camping supplies and picnic tables, one for each of them.

 

Logan was leading Patton, and to Patton’s surprise, they were able to get through fairly fast. At first, Logan had given the directions way too fast, causing Patton to trip over what he thought was maybe a pile of logs or something. The second time, Logan had gotten frustrated as Patton couldn’t seem to follow the series of directions Logan was giving, as he was unfocused and making jokes while trying to navigate. As they restarted the third time though, Logan had adjusted his strategy, taking his time with each direction, and Patton responding by taking the challenge a bit more seriously for Logan, not making as many jokes, and following slowly, but accurately.

 

Third time's a charm, the two finished the obstacle course, and Patton had nearly tackled Logan to the ground with a hug, excited that they had been able to win and work together. Logan, needless to say, politely departed from the hug uncomfortably, but still gave Patton a small smile, which Patton saw as a sign of steps in the right direction.

 

Now, though, it had been 5 minutes, Virgil and Roman were on their 10th try, and Virgil had only gotten as far as halfway through his course. Virgil wasn’t the best participant in the activity, not putting much effort into listening to Roman. Roman, on the other hand, had gotten competitive fast and had gotten pretty heated with each time Virgil fell over some obstacle. With each passing minute since Logan and Patton had finished, Roman’s directions had gotten a lot snappier to Virgil, and Virgil was trying even less in the task.

 

Patton still had hope for them. Dwindling hope, albeit, but hope.

 

Eventually, Virgil just gave up, taking off the blindfold and walking through the course himself.

 

“That’s not exactly how you’re supposed to beat this.” Thomas laughed, Virgil shooting a glare his way.

 

Patton thought he might have heard Virgil hiss, but he wasn’t sure.

 

_Thomas’ Totally Tubular Team Building Activity Number 2: build a bridge out of as little popsicle sticks, rubber bands, marshmallows, and super glue as possible, as fast as possible, and have it able to hold up an apple rolling across it._

 

The four of them were working together on this one while Thomas timed them. Logan immediately took the lead. And by taking the lead, Patton meant Logan took complete control and make the bridge himself, ignoring any input Patton would try to put in.

 

“But, wouldn’t it work if you put another marshmallow there to give it more to stand on?” Patton pointed to the spot in the bridge he thought Logan hadn’t put enough support on. Logan shook his head.

 

“No, because we’re trying to use the least amount of the resources possible, it would be best to use more popsicle sticks to try and spread the support across the bridge.”

 

Logan turned back to work. After his suggestions were shot down, Patton just watched Logan work as he put the bridge together, biting his tongue ever so slightly as he concentrated.

 

7 minutes, and Logan was done. It supported the apple perfectly.

 

Thomas deducted points for lack of teamwork.

 

_Thomas’ Totally Tubular Team Building Activity Number 3: the human knot. A classic! Have everyone take each other's hands in a knot like fashion, and undo it! As a team!_

 

Roman stepped on Logan’s hand, Virgil had elbowed Logan in the face, Patton had gotten himself twisted around at the last second, causing them to have to backtrack quite a few steps to get him untangled, and Roman had tripped, and as everyone was holding hands, everyone went down with him.

 

Patton and Thomas laughed at the dogpile. Virgil, Logan, and Roman did not.

 

Finally, they got themselves unknotted.

 

“A victory! Hurrah!” Roman cheered. Virgil snickered.

 

“Only took us 12 minutes. School kids can do that in 2.”

 

Patton smiled.

 

“It’s still a win in my books! See, we’re getting pretty good as working as a team!”

 

Patton didn’t think anyone believed him.

 

_Thomas’ Totally Tubular Team Building Activity Number 8: toss a ball around the circle, so each person gets a chance to catch and throw it. Remember that order, and continue tossing the ball in that exact order, while adding more and more balls for people to keep track of._

 

Thomas looked tired. 7 activities down and the teamwork had not gotten much farther than the human knot. He held a hacky sack in his hand, a few others sitting by his feet.

 

“This is easy, there is literally no way for you to mess this up.”

 

By the time a third hacky sack was added, Virgil got stressed, and accidentally threw too hard, hitting Roman square in the face.

 

“How dare you, you fiend!”

 

“It was literally just a hacky sack Roman, you didn’t get hit by a baseball. Besides, if I had meant to hit you in the face, it would have hurt a lot more than that.”

 

“Virgil!” Patton berated. Virgil shrugged.

 

“Just speaking the truth.”

 

After that, lunch, and 3 more failed teamworking sessions, Thomas called off the rest of the activities, saving them for another day while he went over to Parchment, most likely to talk to Joan and Talyn over there.

 

Patton could have gone for a few more hours trying. He desperately wanted them to fully succeed in just one challenge, just one to prove that they could work together. But, it never seemed to happen. Logan would always take control and not take Patton’s input on things. Roman and Virgil would nearly always bicker. Patton and Roman would get distracted and start messing around instead of doing what was needed. Virgil and Logan would work fairly well together, though Virgil wasn’t putting in much effort. Logan and Roman worked very well, having known each other beforehand, which is exactly why Thomas never put them in a group together.

 

No matter what, Patton couldn’t see it going well.

 

The next day began work away from the Units and in the buildings to start learning what the counselors would be helping to teach the kids coming to camp.

 

Patton made his walk alone to Mulligan Center, the building to the west of camp where the visual arts students, and in turn, Patton, would be for much of the time at camp.

 

When Patton had signed up to work at the camp, he had been aware that their visual arts program was probably the smallest at the camp. Predominantly, Hickory Forest was known as a band camp, then theater and dance, then choir, and finally visual arts. It was just the truth of it. However, Patton had figured there would still be quite a few counselors for the visual arts.

 

Inside Mulligan, there was only one other counselor and then the adult teacher inside. Patton was already a few minutes late.

 

There would only be three of them.

 

The two already in the room looked towards Patton as the door opened. Patton noticed the other counselor, sporting a delightfully bright and colorfully dyed hairdo, and recognized them as Talyn, Thomas’ friend from the Parchment unit.

 

The teacher stood up from the seat where she was sitting, walking up to Patton with a bright smile. In a way, she sort of reminded Patton of his grandma- slightly older, with broad shoulders and short buzzed hair, and with a smile that was warm and welcoming.

 

“You must be the other counselor! The name is Nani Carter, I’ll be your instructor while you’re here at Hickory Forest, and you’ll be helping me help kids make some art.” Nani gave Patton a smile and a firm handshake while Talyn made their way over to them. Nani gestured to them.

 

“This’ll be Talyn, they’ll be helping with more of the printmaking and fabrication projects that the kids do.” Talyn waved awkwardly, Patton returning it with his own eager wave.

 

“We’ve met!” Confusion registered on Talyn’s face, so Patton backtracked.

 

“Thomas Sanders is my Unit Director.” Patton clarified with a laugh. Recognition made its way to Talyn, and they smiled.

 

“Oh! Patrick!” Patton giggled.

 

“It’s Patton, actually.” Talyn snapped their fingers.

 

“Ah! That was it,” Talyn shook their head, “So close, so close.” They muttered, a laugh escaping their lips. Patton joined in, waving it off.

 

“I get it all the time with my name, it’s fine! Really, it takes _Talyn_ -t for people to get it right on the first try.”

 

The joke processed in Talyn’s head, and suddenly, they burst out laughing.

 

Patton smiled.

 

_I think I’m going to like it here._

 

\---

 

Two days of training with Nani and Talyn down and Patton had fallen in love with Mulligan hall and the people he got to work within it. Nani was sweet and patient and a very outside of the box thinker, just like Patton. She cracked cheesy jokes, gave praise, and talked in endless abandon about her lovely partner working as a lawyer in the city not too far from camp.

 

Talyn was so much fun to be around. While they sometimes groaned at Patton’s bad puns, a few here and there would really get them and they would start laughing wildly. They were insanely creative, always finding fun ways to use color in the practice pieces they did to prepare for camp. While the two had been painting during a downtime, they had ended up making a huge mess splattering paint around to try and make something huge and crazy together. Patton could see why Thomas would want to hang around someone like Talyn, they were just so fun to be with- they had even offered to dye Patton’s hair, which was something he had never thought of doing before, but now he was highly considering doing.

 

Mulligan was great. The three of them, Nani, Talyn, and him, were like a little family already.

 

Stanza unit was not so good.

 

Despite Patton’s best efforts, he could never convince all four of the counselors to come together and work on something without some bickering arising in minutes. The group had yet to work together on a project and have it go successfully. While Patton could get along individually with pretty much everyone (Logan in the mornings was still a no go, but other times they got along fine enough), the group as a whole almost never sat together. Mulligan may be where he was working, but Stanza would be where he would be staying, the people he would be eating with and hanging out with after classes were over, and Patton just wanted that to be more like a family like Mulligan was.

 

Three days after the first attempts of team building activities, counselors were back to unit work. Review the rules, running over drills, the works. By the time lunch had ended, Unit Directors had a meeting of their own over at Main Camp, so for the afternoon, Thomas bid the rest of the Stanza unit farewell, leaving them with no instruction.

 

Patton guessed this was because if Thomas had tried to tell them to do more team building activities, it would just cause chaos and he wouldn’t be there to stop it. But as Patton sat alone in the Carroll cabin, staring at his empty wall of photos, he came to one conclusion:

 

If Thomas wasn’t going to do it, Patton was. He grabbed an empty bag from his room, stuffing in a notebook, some colorful gel pens, and his camera, and stormed out of the cabin.

 

First stop: Roman. The easiest to convince, Patton hoped.

 

He walked up to the Poe cabin, the farthest one on the left, surrounded by looming trees and pushed back away from the rest of the unit. Taking a deep breath, Patton aggressively knocked on the door. He heard scuffling from inside, as Roman answered the door, pleasant shock reaching his face.

 

“Ah, Patton! What do you need?” Patton could hear as Disney music softly played from a speaker on Roman’s desk in the cabin. Patton exhaled.

 

“I think we should work on the song for All Camp Sing.”

 

Roman’s eyes glittered.

 

“OF COURSE! I would love to work with you on the song Patton! Oh, we could create something so fun and energetic, the two of us-” Patton laughed.

 

“No, silly! All of us, the whole unit should work on it.” Roman deflated slightly.

 

“Oh. Well, while I’m sure Lo would have some good input, lyrically he has always proven a bit more talented than I, do we really have to invite Marilyn Morose?”

 

“Roman, Virgil is the only one of us who plays an instrument-” Patton could see Roman begin to cut him off, but Patton beat him to it, “Besides ukulele, which we could still use! But he’s a part of this unit just like any of us, so we should go invite him to join.” Roman sighed.

 

“I suppose you are right, though I can’t see how this will end any better than our team building exercises.” Roman gave Patton a determined smile, “I’ll go grab my uke though.” Roman ran back into the Poe cabin, turning off his Disney music and running out with a red polished concert ukulele.

 

Next on the list was Logan, who was fairly easy to convince to join the cause with Roman in tow.

 

“I really think we should wait until Thomas arrives-”

 

“Please, Lo,” Roman stretched out the please, grabbing Logan’s hand with his hand not holding his ukulele, “It will be a pleasant surprise! You can help with the lyrics!” Logan rolled his eyes but smiled at his friend.

 

“I suppose.”

 

Patton nearly squealed with excitement as he ran ahead to the last cabin, Alighieri. He eagerly knocked and waited for a response, feet rocking back and forth.

 

Finally, Virgil opened the door.

 

“What do you-” Virgil perked up at Patton’s smile, “Oh, Patton. What’s up?”

 

“We’re going to work on the All Camp Sing song!” Virgil raised an eyebrow.

 

“We… are? But Thomas-”

 

“I know, I know, but can you do this? For me? It’ll just be an hour or two, and hopefully, we can make a fun little bop by the end of it!” Patton felt his heart beating as worry swelled in his chest. At any moment, Virgil could just close the door, and the whole point of working on the song as a team working moment would be ruined.

 

But Virgil just sighed.

 

“Yeah, okay. But if I hear Roman’s ukulele-” the sound of someone loudly strumming out a chord on the ukulele ironically cut Virgil off. Patton gave a sheepish smile, but Virgil just shrugged, going in and grabbing his cello case.

 

“Alright, then, let’s get to work.”

 

With everyone congregated at the picnic tables, Patton pulled out his notebook and spilled his pens onto the table.

 

“Okay, does anyone remember what theme Thomas said the All Camp Sing was going to be?”

 

“Paintings. It had to be a song about the unit that references a famous painting in the title.” Virgil muttered, setting up his cello. Patton smiled. Right up his alley. He wrote ‘Famous Painting’ in blue pen at the top of a fresh page, underlining it for emphasis.

 

“Then that’s a good place to start! Once we pick a painting, then we have a mood to work with! Any suggestions?”

 

“Mona Lisa.”

 

“A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte!”

 

“Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I.”

 

Virgil, Roman, and Logan, respectively, all spoke over each other.

 

Roman turned to Virgil and laughed, “Okay, Panic! At the Everywhere. Ballad of Mona Lisa, much? We're trying to be original!”

 

Virgil said nothing, just looking to Patton as if to say ‘See?’ Patton gave a silent plea for them to just continue, and Virgil must have understood because he returned his attention to his cello.

 

“Well, Roman doesn’t seem to like Virgil’s, and Roman, while yours is a nice choice, it is awfully long for something to have as a song title. And Logan, while I love that painting, a lot of kids I feel like aren’t going to get it.” Patton pointed out. He tried his best to sound kind with all the criticisms, so as to avoid any more potential fights. Luckily, everyone seemed to understand.

 

Logan pushed his glasses up, attention on Patton.

 

“Patton, you are the art major here. Why don’t you pick one for us?”

 

Pressure bubbled in Patton.

 

“There are so many beautiful paintings though! How could I pick just one-”

 

“It’s best if you pick it to avoid potential arguments. Please, Patton?” Logan asked. Patton sighed, nodding.

 

He mentally went through all of his favorite paintings. Many would be good choices but would be hard to relate back to camp. Some had just far too long titles to make work. Others still Patton worried wouldn’t be popular enough to make sense to the kids.

 

Then, the choice clicked.

 

“We could do Starry Night! A classic, literally everyone who is anyone knows it, and we could even relate that to the stars above camp, and make it almost a campfire song!” Patton said excitedly, waiting for everyone's reactions. Virgil and Roman made eye contact, both nodding. Logan smiled.

 

“I think that’s an adequate choice.”

 

“Yes! A stroke of creative genius on your part Patton.” Roman offered a supportive smile. Patton turned to Virgil who shrugged.

 

“Yeah. Kinda think it’s overrated, but your idea could make it work.”

 

Patton thought he was maybe going to cry.

 

“Aw, you all finally agreed on something! I’m so proud of you, kiddos.” Patton squished his face to make a point. Roman snickered.

 

“We’ll see how long this lasts.”

 

“Shh! Don’t ruin the moment!” Patton said, laughing.

 

It took them a good few hours to get a decent draft going. It didn’t go perfectly, to be fair. Logan still tried to take charge, trying to write all of the lyrics on his own, Roman and Virgil, while working on the melody, struggled to agree on anything. But Patton didn’t just sit idly by. As the chaos grew, he had had enough.

 

_“Stop it! Guys, this is supposed to be a fun song that the kids and us get to perform during camp. We should be working together to make something great for them. Logan, you need to actually listen when I and others give you input, it really hurts not to have our thoughts be heard,” Logan seemed to cave in on himself, as he pushed away the notebook he had been furiously scribbling in. Patton turned his attention to Virgil and Roman, “And I know you haven’t been getting along, but you both clearly like music, so for just a little while can you just work together? If not for me, for us? As a unit?”_

 

To his surprise, for one hour, it worked. They pulled it together and made a song as a group. As a working, functioning team. By the time Thomas arrived before dinner, they showed him what they had.

 

Patton had never seen Thomas so proud.

 

“I think we’ve got something good there.” He said.

 

Patton agreed.

 

That night, Patton put the first 4 photos up on his empty wall, photos of them all laughing and singing a fun, silly, song together, as a unit, as Stanza, as a family.

 

\---

 

The next morning, Patton took his usual spot at the beach by the lake, eyes closed as he listened to the nature around him, when he felt someone taking the seat next to him.

 

Patton looked over to see Logan the most disheveled Patton had ever seen him (which still wasn’t very bad, but still); dark hair fallen in front of his face, dressed in a casual t-shirt and some shorts, sandals on his feet. Logan hugged his legs, looking out towards the lake. His voice was soft and quiet.

 

“I hope you don’t mind me joining you. You said the lake was nice, and I hadn’t listened then, but,” Logan sighed, “I’m trying to get better at that. So, I thought I would accompany you for this morning- again, if you don’t mind of course.”

 

Patton smiled, following Logan’s gaze to the sunrise over the water.

 

“I don’t mind at all, Logan.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> wHOOP i forgot to add an end note so this is an edit lol. ANYWAY next chapter- the campers arrive!!! fun times!! camp is beginning!! 
> 
> next chapter might take 2 days to come out, because im planning to start making the chapters longer now and its really hard for me to write more than 5,000 words a day. hopefully none of you mind the slightly longer wait!! 
> 
> also: because it was commented yesterday, ive been contemplating getting a tumblr to post this and other supplementary stuff to the au, so if anyone else thinks i should, let me know if it's a thing i should do!!
> 
> anywho, hope you guys enjoyed the chapter! thank you so much for reading <3


	5. melodies

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Virgil was, in fact, not a morning person, though he assumed this came as a shock to no one.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> warnings: depictions of anxiety, implied past toxic friendship/relationship

Virgil was, in fact, not a morning person, though he assumed this came as a shock to no one. 

 

What Virgil was, though, was a chronic worrier. In situations of importance specifically, Virgil’s mind would always jump leaps and bounds trying to come up with all of the possible scenarios to come from said situations. Most of these thoughts would cheerfully remind Virgil that at any second, everything could come crumbling down if one single thing went wrong. 

 

So, Virgil worked hard to make sure things  _ wouldn’t  _ go wrong. And sometimes, that meant waking up at 6 in the morning, 3 hours before the first campers would arrive, just to make sure everything was ready for their arrival. Normally, this early in the morning, his mind would still be groggy and dazed, taking a while for him to wake up. But the morning of the day the campers would arrive, the minute his alarm went off, Virgil was wide awake and going to work. 

 

In the week of training at Hickory Forest so far, Virgil’s space in the Alighieri cabin had already become chaotic. His clothing scattered the floor, poorly taped posters were half hung, folded over themselves, and sheet music scattered the desk that had been provided to him. His guitar was out of its case, sprawled on the floor next to his bed where he had been playing it the night before. Virgil’s chest felt tight as he looked around. If Virgil had still been a camper and showed up to camp, seeing his counselor’s room like that, he would have immediately made an assumption about his counselor and thought worse for him. Now, 19-year-old Virgil could see in hindsight that he shouldn’t have been prone to make snap judgments like that, but it was the truth of him in high school. Virgil didn’t think it to be too far-fetched that other teenagers would still be in that same mindset. 

 

So, at 6 am, before showering or eating or grabbing a coffee, Virgil cleaned the area. He even went as far as to grab the broom he had shoved in the corner and swept out the dust that had made its way in the cabin in the past week. By the time he was done, the cabin didn’t really look all that different, at least to an outside eye. But to Virgil, the small bit of cleaning made him feel just a bit calmer about the fact that in a mere 2 and a half hours, the campers would be arriving. 

 

Virgil stepped out his cabin, shower stuff in hand, when he saw Logan and Patton already up and awake, walking into the unit as if they had gone somewhere together and were now returning. 

 

Strange. For multiple reasons, he thought. For one, at this time, Virgil figured he would have been the only one awake, but he supposed that Logan and Patton seemed the most like of the 5 of them in the unit to be morning people. Secondly, and mostly, Virgil couldn’t fathom where they had gone together. Not that he thought Patton and Logan weren’t friends; the two seemed amicable enough when they were together as a group, but Virgil wouldn’t necessarily peg them as friends outside of a group setting. Patton was never-ending energy, sunshine, smiles, and bad puns. Logan was subtlety, chronic coffee drinking, rare smiles, and a decidedly prominent distaste for puns. 

 

And yet, there they were, Patton laughing while telling Logan something, and Logan offering a smile in return as they walked together into the Unit Director Office, probably for breakfast. 

 

And Virgil thought it was strange. 

 

But Virgil shook his head as he continued towards the Stanza bathrooms to take a shower. He was an overthinker, and he was, more than likely, overanalyzing the situation. 

 

Virgil took a brisk shower, and walked out of the bathrooms, dressed in the camp uniform red polo tucked loosely into his black jeans, name tag clipped on, and ready to go for the day. He found though, that he was the only one. Patton and Logan had moved to the picnic table, Logan sipping coffee while Patton ate what Virgil could only assume was a pop tart. Both were still in their pajamas and were clearly taking their time for the morning. 

 

Patton he understood, but Logan he had expected to be more punctual with getting ready this morning of all mornings. Now Virgil wondered if they noticed how out of place he looked, all dressed and ready in the camp shirt at 15 minutes to 7 am.

 

But maybe he was just overthinking again. 

 

Virgil walked over to where Patton and Logan sat, sitting on the edge of the table, drying his hair with his towel. Logan coughed. 

 

“Virgil?” 

 

Virgil turned his head to Logan, “‘Sup?” 

 

“Is it necessary to sit on the table top when there are perfectly good seats around the table?” 

 

“Yes,” Virgil said and left it at that as he continued to dry his hair. Patton smiled up at him. 

 

“How did you sleep last night, kiddo?” 

 

Patton, coming in with the hard-hitting questions early in the morning. All in a few seconds, Virgil contemplated whether to go with the truth (“Not well, went to sleep at about 3am and then woke up 3 hours later because the fear of ruining the camp experience for a bunch of teens because I was a bad counselor ruled my entire existence for a night”) or go with a happy, white lie (“Fine.”)

 

As much as Virgil would have liked to have given Patton an answer to make him happy, Virgil opted for the truth, if a softened version of it. 

 

“Not great, but I think I’ll be fine.” 

 

Patton gave Virgil a sympathetic look.

 

“Aw, sad to hear that. But, I’m sure as the first day goes by you’ll be so tired you’ll sleep like a rock tonight! Pop tart?” Patton held out the second pop tart for Virgil, who took it with a smile. 

 

“Thanks, Patt.” 

 

Scarfing down the pop tart in an entirely ungraceful fashion, Virgil ran back to his cabin to continue on with preparing for the kids to arrive. Towel thrown in his laundry hamper, Virgil quickly spotted on some concealer and eyeshadow, his usual look, and got to work. 

 

Virgil gathered up all of the papers he had for the campers- Schedules of final performances for parents, information for writing letters, itineraries of different events that would be happening at camp, and, on top of it all, the checklist of campers staying in Alighieri for the first two weeks of summer. 

 

For this first session, Virgil only had 8 campers, leaving two beds unused in the cabin, which Virgil was more than okay with. He was already intimidated by the fact he would be supervising so many kids, so starting with a lower number before he had a full cabin was reassuring. 

 

He ran over the names probably a dozen times. 

 

_ Leo, Ollie, Wayne, Hugh, Markus, Jamie, Kit, and Alex. _ Virgil tried his best to memorize the names now so he wouldn’t mess up later. If he had the names down now, before they even arrived, then, according to Virgil’s own logic, it would be easier for him to associate names to faces when they did get to Hickory Forest. 

 

Papers stuffed in an old notebook (Virgil probably should have invested in a clipboard, but the thought hadn’t come to mind until then,) Virgil went back out to join the others. Now, Thomas had joined Patton and Logan, and all three were dressed in the red camp polos. Thomas smiled and waved as he saw Virgil walk out, Virgil giving a salute in return. 

 

“Great to see you, Virgil! Looks like all we need now is Roman so we can start getting the unit ready for the campers.” Thomas turned to Logan, “Would you mind go waking him up?” 

 

Logan’s eyes went wide as he pushed his glasses up. 

 

“Roman is… a heavy sleeper, to say the least and is not very nice when he wakes up. I would rather not face the force that is Roman in the morning.” 

 

Thomas’ smile faltered as he turned to Patton hopefully. Before he could say anything, Patton’s hand flew to his nose.

 

“NOSE GOES.” 

 

Panic flared in Virgil. He knew how ‘nose goes’ worked, but in the moment of surprise, he couldn’t get his finger to point to his nose fast enough, and suddenly Thomas, Patton, and Logan were looking at him expectantly, pointer fingers on noses. Virgil growled, dropping his notebook on the table. 

 

“Oh, come on.” 

 

“Sorry kiddo!” Patton gave him a sheepish smile.

 

“Fine, I’m waking up Roman? I’m doing it my way.” Virgil marched back to Alighieri, while the three left at the table sat silent, sharing cautious looks. 

 

Virgil walked out, trumpet in hand. 

 

Not even stopping, Virgil made his way to the Poe cabin, and without knocking, burst through the door, playing his trumpet as loud as possible, blaring it right towards Roman’s bed. 

 

Virgil would have paid good money to be able to replay the moment Roman tumbled out of his bed in a panic, blanket tangling up in him as he crashed to the floor. 

 

Roman looked like a mess to say the least, his dark brown hair with more curl to it as compared to the usual easy waves, hairs stuck to his face from laying down on his side. Roman’s head popped up from the floor to look at Virgil, who had to stop playing his trumpet because he was laughing so hard. 

 

Roman’s eyes were filled with fire, and Virgil was enjoying every minute of it.

 

“Rise and shine, Sleeping Beauty, campers will be here soon.” Virgil quipped, struggling to hide his amusement from Roman’s less than prince-like exit from the bed. 

 

Roman snarled, flicking his hair out of his face.

 

“I thought you were supposed to wake up the sleeping damsel with a kiss, not the deafening sounds of that God-forsaken demon instrument,  _ Hot Topic _ .” He grumbled, pulling himself up off the floor and onto his bed. Virgil made his way to the door. 

 

“Aw, you think I’m hot  _ and  _ you want a kiss? Flattering, but I’m going to have to say no.” Virgil rolled his eyes, heading out of the cabin. Roman opened his mouth but failed to come up with a retort back. He registered what had just been said, ears turning red as he frustratingly stood up. 

 

“Oh, you little-”

 

“Better hurry up and get ready, Princess Aurora,” Virgil called, before finally letting the door to the Poe cabin slam behind him. Roman rushed to the door, practically whipping it open. 

 

“If ANYTHING I’m Prince Phillip, not Aurora!” He yelled after Virgil. Virgil just gave a wave in response.

 

“Fine! Whatever you say then, Princey.” 

 

The Poe cabin door shut fast. 

 

Virgil walked out back to the picnic table, where Thomas and Patton were absolutely losing it in a fit of giggles. 

 

Logan looked mortified. 

 

“I’m surprised he didn’t murder you right then and there,” Logan said, taking a long sip of his coffee. Virgil shrugged, holding up his trumpet. 

 

“Apparently the ‘God-forsaken demon instrument’ does wonders as an alarm clock.” 

 

It was only a few minutes later that Roman came out of the cabin. By then, Thomas and Patton had calmed down and were now discussing their excitement about the arrival of the campers. Roman completely avoided the table, making a beeline right to the bathrooms. 

 

Eventually, Roman made his way to joining the group at the table. The 4 waited expectantly- if the others were anything like Virgil, they were expecting some kind of outburst, a trail of typical brooding nicknames directed towards Virgil, berating him for his methods of waking him up. 

 

Instead, however, Roman took a seat down next to Logan with composure. 

 

“I’ll have you know I’m taking the higher road.” 

 

Virgil stifled a laugh as he rummaged through his notebook. He half expected a response, but instead Roman just went to talking with Logan about his dream from that night.

 

“-And then, as the world started collapsing, the man in red, from earlier? He ran over to the mountain and started to hold up the sky. Then, it all just stopped. The sky was still whirling like it was a painting, but it stopped!”

 

Virgil had no intention of listening to whatever mess Roman’s brain could possibly come up with, but before he knew it, he was intrigued, as were Thomas and Patton. He couldn’t even explain it. Somehow, Roman had captured all of their attention with his performative storytelling, weaving his words in such a way that it had caught them all like a web. He spoke with such detail and conviction, it wasn’t hard to believe he was an actor at all. 

 

Virgil couldn’t tell if Roman knew they were all paying attention to him. If he did, he didn’t show it, keeping his focus on Logan, who was just nodding and agreeing, as if this was a normal Roman procedure. 

 

Then, a car pulled into the Stanza unit. 

 

A camper had arrived. 

 

Thomas popped up from the picnic table, straightening his shirt and putting on a wide smile, snatching up his own clipboard and heading over. 

 

Out of the passenger side seat, a kid of maybe about 15 walked out of the car. He wasn’t very tall, a mess of wavy brown hair framed his face, which even from a distance, Virgil could see was filled with fear. Thomas walked over, introducing himself to the kid, and talking to a woman who had exited from the driver's seat, presumably the mother. 

 

“Whose cabin do you think he’s in?” Patton asked excitedly. 

 

“I assume we’ll find out shortly,” Logan noted. 

 

“He looks scared.” Virgil hadn’t meant to say it out loud. His voice was barely a whisper when it had slipped, but Roman of all people had heard it and turned his attention to Virgil, then back to the kid. 

 

His eyes were darting everywhere. His arms were crossed, but Virgil could see as his hands fidgeted against his arms, despite the kid’s effort to stop them. 

 

Virgil recognized the look, the closed-off stance, the hunched shoulders and eyes examining every building around him. 

 

Virgil saw himself, age 15, starting up at another new summer camp. 

 

Thomas suddenly gestured towards the picnic table, and lead the mother and son over to the counselors. Thomas gestured to Virgil.

 

“Maria, Leo, this is Virgil! Virgil, this is Leo, he will be staying in the Alighieri cabin for the camp session!” Virgil stood from his spot, fumbling to grab his notebook of papers as he walked over to the trio. 

 

Virgil looked at Leo, a deer in the headlights, and smiled. 

 

“Nice to meet you, Leo. Welcome to Hickory Forest.” He held out a hand, which Leo tentatively shook. Virgil looked between Maria and Leo, who were nearly the same height (Virgil couldn’t tell if this said more about the shortness of Maria or the height of Leo.) 

 

“I’ll show you guys to the Alighieri cabin, right over here.” Virgil waved in the direction of Alighieri and went off, Leo and Maria following after. 

 

With Maria, Virgil went through the protocol- the performance schedule, the letter writing instructions, the guarantee that her child would be safe at camp. She didn’t speak much during the conversation, and to be honest, seemed more like she was waiting to get it done. She took the papers Virgil had given her, helped her son get his bags in the cabin, and then drove off with only a quick goodbye to her son. 

 

The whole situation felt awkward, and Virgil did not know what to do. 

 

Leo stood stiffly in the cabin, looking towards the numerous empty bunks. Virgil walked up next to him. 

 

“You get first pick, wherever you want to stay is yours, kid.” 

 

“Leo. Not kid.” Despite the assertiveness of the words, Leo said them with little conviction, voice quiet. Virgil nodded, stuffing his hands in his pockets. 

 

“Leo. Got it.” 

 

Silence fell in the room as Leo randomly walked towards a bunk and began unpacking onto the shelves provided for the campers. Still, through all of this, his face looked panicked, and his body posture was closed off. Virgil sighed. He was bad at being supportive, and he knew it. But this was his first camper, and he was not going to make a bad impression. 

 

Virgil walked over, plopping himself down on the bed next to the one Leo had chosen. Leo looked at him with wide eyes. 

 

“So, Leo, what major are you doing here at camp?” 

 

“Contemporary theater.” His voice came out tight and strained. Virgil gave what he hoped was a supportive smile. 

 

“Ah man, you should talk to one of the other counselors, Roman? He’s a musical theater major. He’s kind of insufferable sometimes, but I  _ guess  _ he’s kind of okay.” Virgil rolled his eyes, over exaggerating the motion, and smiled. Leo let out a short laugh. 

 

That was a start. 

 

“Shouldn’t you be friends with the other counselors?” Leo asked, raising an eyebrow. Virgil could detect a bit of sass in his tone.  _ Okay, so this is what he’s like _ . Virgil shrugged. 

 

“Never said you couldn’t be friends with someone and still acknowledge that their singing of Disney tunes late into the night is a pain on the ears.” That got a genuine laugh out of Leo. So that was the key; make fun of Princey and then the campers would be a bit less stressed. That would be a piece of cake. 

 

“So is this your first year?” Leo nodded his head as he continued to unpack. 

 

“My older sibling went a few years ago for theater. They really pushed me to get… out of my comfort zone to go.” Virgil nodded his head. 

 

“Yeah, I get that. My first year I knew absolutely no one and was terrified.” Leo looked up with wide eyes. 

 

“Really?” 

 

Virgil swallowed. He didn’t like getting into details of his feelings in general, let alone his anxieties,  _ let alone  _ telling them to some teenager. But if it would help, the truth was what was best. 

 

“Mhm. The only way I got through was because of two friends I made that year, Remy and-” Virgil cut himself off, “another friend.” Virgil looked to Leo, giving an empathetic smile. 

 

“You’ll make friends fast, I promise. It’s gonna be a fun two weeks.” 

 

Leo nodded, and Virgil could see as he relaxed. 

 

Virgil took a heavy breath, standing up. 

 

“Alright, well I have boring camp counselor shit to do, so I will see you later Leo. Good luck at your first class.” 

 

Leo laughed. 

 

“Are camp counselors supposed to swear in front of the campers?” 

 

Virgil shrugged, heading to the door of the cabin. 

 

“Maybe not, but frankly, I don’t give two shits.” 

 

The rest of the campers seemed to file in fast. Ollie and Wayne came next, the two apparently having been friends from their previous year at camp. Next was Kit, whose mothers stayed to help unpack and reminded Virgil so much of his own parents (he mentally reminded himself to call his moms later that day when he had the chance). Hugh, on the other hand, was practically begging his parents to leave as soon as they dropped him off, obviously seeking independence or something of the like. Alex came in as soon as he came out, as he was running late to the Orchestra auditions to decide sections. Jamie, another first-year camper, was so much less nervous than Leo had been. Jamie reminded Virgil a lot of Patton, with endless energy and the will of positivity. Finally, the last to arrive was Markus, an outspoken kid with neon blue hair, and another theater major (how Virgil ended up with two of them, he didn’t know.) Markus was eager introducing himself to Leo, and the two walked together to Kent Theater. 

 

Once all the kids were settled in, Virgil realized Patton was right this morning- he wanted to pass out. 

 

Alas, it was only 11 am, and Virgil had to head off to the Orchestra. 

 

The class itself wouldn’t start until 3 pm, but Virgil, as one of the camp counselors helping out in the Orchestra, was obligated to stay during auditions if able, despite there being only one piano student this year, so sections weren’t needed for him to help decide. 

 

Still, Virgil arrived at the Orchestra Hall, passing the line of kids waiting to head into the audition room, and walking in himself between performances. 

 

In the middle of the room was a table, where sat the 3 adults who would be alternating as conductors throughout the camp. The one sat at the center waved Virgil in, and the next auditioning kid began their quick solo. 

 

Behind the conductors were 10 or so of the many camp counselors who would be helping out. Virgil scanned through the crowd and found exactly who he was hoping to see. Sitting in the back, Virgil found Remy, looking straight ahead, head leaned back on the wall behind him. The closer he got, Virgil realized that Remy was, unsurprisingly, asleep, presumably not getting in trouble because his dark sunglasses hid the fact that he was passed out. 

 

Virgil took the seat next to him and stole the Starbucks cup that was still being held in Remy’s hand. Immediately upon losing his coffee, Remy snapped awake to Virgil taking a long sip. Remy snatched the cup back. 

 

“Vee. You know the coffee is off limits.” Remy spoke in a hushed tone as the camper finished their solo and the next camper walked in. 

 

“How did you even get more Starbucks out here? Last I checked there isn’t one in camp, let alone within a 30-mile radius.”

 

“I have a guy.”

 

“I think you’re just refilling an old coffee cup with the camp coffee.” 

 

Remy scoffed, “I can’t even with this right now.” Virgil let out a soft snicker. 

 

“Alright Remy, if you say so.”

 

Remy mumbled something Virgil couldn’t quite hear, and suddenly taking the coffee and downing it, slamming the cup onto the empty chair next to him, catching the counselor on the other side of the chair off guard. 

 

“You would not believe the troubles I’ve had this week. My unit director is like, the worst. He’s totally like no fun, all rules, ‘art is pristine and we can’t joke around’ and blah blah blah. He’s just awful. Not to mention Declan has just been on my last nerves lately, and it’s the first day of camp! He’s acting like he can just waltz back into camp after what he did, all like ‘Oh Remy, my best friend,’ and just-” Remy groaned, “I can’t stand that guy.” 

 

Virgil tried not to wince.

 

Another reminder that Declan was here. That it wasn’t some nightmare that Virgil had dreamt up, and Declan really had decided not to come back to a place he claimed to love so much but everyone knew he hated. No, Declan was here, and the last thing Virgil wanted to do was run into him. 

 

Virgil subconsciously knocked on the wooden wall behind him, just to be safe.

 

Remy, who had been talking the whole time, gave Virgil a weird look, but just rolled his eyes. 

 

“I wouldn’t worry too much, Vee. I don’t think he’d come near you.”

 

Virgil wasn’t sure if that made him feel better or worse. 

 

Auditions and lunch went by in a blur, and the first class of camp began. Kids filed into the band hall, as the conductors starting telling kids their assignments and seats. 

 

Virgil walked his way over to the one grand piano set up to the side of all of the seats. Already sitting over on one of the seats set aside for counselors was the other piano major, Emile. Virgil and Emile had talked a bit over the week of training before camp, but not a ton. Emile was studying to become a musical therapist, which Virgil actually thought was pretty cool, but the two didn’t have much in common enough to really talk much. Virgil gave a quick wave as he took the seat next to Emile, and began flipping through the sheet music for the first piece the campers would be learning at camp. 

 

A few minutes later, a girl, maybe 16 or 17 with bobbed black hair and big round glasses approached the piano, circling it awkwardly as if she didn’t know if she was allowed to sit there or not. 

 

“Are you the piano student this session?” Emile spoke up first, and the girl quickly nodded her head. Emile smiled, gesturing towards the piano bench. 

 

“Feel free to take a seat then! I’m Emile, and this is Virgil, we’re both piano majors, so we’ll be helping out from time to time.” The girl adjusting her glasses as she took a seat. 

 

“I’m Dee.” The words came out cool, catching both Emile and Virgil off guard, the two sharing a look. Before Emile could follow up with anything, Dee flicked through the sheet music sat on the piano and began playing soft enough that it didn’t disturb the conductors placing kids still. 

 

Though the playing was quiet, it was good, almost played so well that Virgil wouldn’t be surprised if she already knew the song. 

 

Virgil was thinking that maybe she wouldn’t need any help, let alone from both Emile and him. 

 

This would be a long session.

 

The first class that day went by slowly. After placements, most of the time was just introducing the many, many campers to the equally many, many counselors who were there to help, and then explaining the set of music that was going to be learned for the final performance on the last day of camp. Overall, it was slow, boring, and Dee was not all that interested in talking to either Emile or Virgil, despite Emile’s best attempts. 

 

Finally, dinner time rolled around, and the kids filed themselves off to the Mess Hall to meet with their units to eat. Virgil stayed behind a while to let the mass of people out first, packing up his sheet music into his bag. 

 

“Virge, why didn’t you tell me you were teaching at camp? We could have talked so much sooner than this.” 

 

The voice was all too familiar to Virgil. He wanted to remain calm but maybe seemed a bit too eager when his head snapped up to confirm what he thought. There, leaning on the grand piano as the last of the campers and counselors left the Orchestra Hall, was Declan. 

 

It was strange how much he looked exactly and yet not at all like he had at camp just a year prior when they were campers. He was still the same height, slightly taller than Virgil himself, but nearly everything else felt different. The long hair that once hid his face was cropped short. Instead of hiding the vitiligo on the right of his face with foundation, Declan had left his face devoid of makeup. Declan gave Virgil a wide smile with kind eyes that Virgil already desperately wanted to believe were truly,  _ truly  _ kind. 

 

He was already falling again, and he hadn’t even gotten up from last time. 

 

Virgil quickly finished gathering his things. He needed to get out as soon as possible, but now he couldn’t just avoid Declan. 

 

“Sorry. Camp is busy, you know?” Virgil’s eyes met the light green of Declan’s, who nodded as if he understood. 

 

“Oh yeah, of course, but really, to have to hear from  _ Remy  _ of all people that you ended up in our unit as a counselor… well, come on Virge. I know it’s been a while, but last year was our best summer yet, I thought we got over that whole,” Declan waved his hand around flippantly, “Event. I know it was a mistake. You know it was a mistake. So let’s move on! We can catch up sometime.” Declan gave a sickeningly sweet smile. Virgil slung his bag over his shoulder. 

 

“Right. Moving on. Sure, I’ll see if I can find some time.” Virgil’s voice was devoid of any sincerity. Declan sensed this and shrugged.

 

“I still consider you one of my best friends, Virge. I want things to be right, whether you believe me or not. I’ll see you around. We’ll talk soon.” With a smile and a wave, Declan left the Orchestra Hall, and Virgil was on his own. 

 

Virgil let his bag dip to the floor as he slumped onto the piano bench. 

 

Was it bad he still wanted to believe Declan? 

 

If you had asked him just an hour ago if he would ever trust Declan again, Virgil would have laughed in your face. But there he was, desperately wishing for a time when he was a stupid teen having stupid fun with a friend. 

 

He tried to compose himself, to shake the thoughts from his head, but his mind kept drifting back to Declan. So soon a minute long conversation could send Virgil spiraling.

 

_ We’ll talk soon.  _

 

Great,  _ that  _ wasn’t ominous at all. 

 

Before Virgil knew it, his hands were hovering over the keys to the piano, and he began to play. 

 

_ Play to forget, to think about something else. The notes, think of the notes. _

 

He started soft, playing a simple melody of just a few notes as quiet as he could. 

 

_ 1, 2, 3, Declan, Declan, Declan- NO.  _

 

Virgil pressed a bit harder on the keys, playing faster as he went. He didn’t know what he was playing, maybe it was a song that existed, maybe it was just something in his head, he couldn’t tell, everything was too foggy to tell. 

 

_ 1, 2, 3, 4. 1, 2, 3, Declan-  _ Again and again, it drifts back to him, and each time, Virgil tries to forget about it by playing a little harder and a little faster, hands creating melodies and harmonies to songs no one would hear or remember. If he just played, maybe he could forget, forget about the bad things, forget that anything ever hurt him, forget fear. But it wasn’t good to forget. The more Virgil thought about Declan, the more he remembered, the more he hated and hated and hated and  _ hated _ . Hated what? Declan? Himself? The whole situation? Who knew, certainly not Virgil. All Virgil knew were the notes, the music he was now practically banging on the piano, wishing his thoughts would just go away. 

 

The music devolved into chaos, ending in a wondrous whirlwind of dissonant chords that somehow still made music. 

 

Virgil didn’t know when he had started crying, but once he did, his hands came to an abrupt stop. 

 

His breathing was heavy, his chest hurting from the inside. 

 

He closed his eyes as he buried his head in his hands. 

 

Emotions, quite frankly, sucked, and Virgil was currently not a fan. 

 

“...Virgil?”

 

A voice came quietly from the other side of the Orchestra Hall. Virgil’s heart caught in his throat as he quickly made moves to wipe the tears from his face, gathering his bag. 

 

When he stood up, he could see Roman standing in front of the entrance door, eyes wide- with wonder or fear, Virgil couldn’t tell. 

 

Well, shit. Of anyone to be present for Virgil’s breakdown, Roman was the person he least wanted there. 

 

Virgil expected a quip- some joke at his expense, some awful thing Roman Bloom, self-proclaimed Disney Prince, would think of. 

 

Instead, he stood quiet, taking a cautious step closer, into the hall. 

 

“Um, you never showed up for dinner, and Patton got worried and- God, that was amazing…” Roman trailed off, voice quiet, which sounded weird considering how used to Roman’s typical grand voice Virgil was. 

 

Virgil rushed down with his things, pushing past Roman out the doors. 

 

“Enjoy the show, Princey?” 

 

Virgil, at this point, was antagonizing Roman, and he knew it. He was frustrated and mad that, once again in his life, he had let Declan affect him in any way, and he just wanted to take it out on something other than that poor grand piano. 

 

Virgil didn’t expect Roman to grab his arm. Virgil turned his head back to see a look of simultaneous concern and fascination on Roman’s features. 

 

“That’s not what I meant, you complete-” He cut himself off before finishing his sentence, “I just meant, wow. I mean I’ve never heard piano playing like that. It felt so…  _ real _ .” 

 

Virgil was about to say something back, something rude, to get some rise out of Roman, but looking back at him, genuine look shining in his eyes, Virgil couldn’t bring himself to do it. 

 

He sighed. He was tired. It was the first day of camp and he was so, so tired. 

 

“Thanks. I guess.” Virgil went on the trail to the right, heading to the mess hall, but Roman stopped him again. 

 

“No, I uh, didn’t get here in time. Dinner’s over, the unit already got back.” Roman said sheepishly. Virgil rolled his eyes, switching directions to head to Stanza instead. 

 

“Anything else, Princey?”

 

Roman paused, stuffing his hands in his pockets. 

 

“We’re having a campfire? Also, your piano playing is way better than your trumpet playing.” 

 

Virgil allowed a sharp laugh to leave his system, and Roman seemed to relax a bit. 

 

In a shocking turn of events, the two walked back to the unit in a comfortable silence, no jokes, no nicknames, just a nice walk in the woods, arriving at Stanza unit, where campers were loitering around as Logan was starting a fire. 

 

To be honest, after the whole long day, Virgil just wanted to go to bed, but as soon as he arrived, Patton bombarded him with a hug, handed him a sandwich he had smuggled from the Mess Hall, and told him he should play the guitar around the campfire for them. 

 

Virgil couldn’t find it in his heart to say no to Patton, so he agreed. 

 

And, to his shock, the campfire was fun. Thomas had gone to bed for the night, but the rest of them stayed out fairly late. The campers all already seemed to get along pretty well, Patton was entertaining them with his various camping jokes, Roman was telling grand stories and running various improv games for the theater campers, and Logan and Virgil were sat comfortably away from everyone at the picnic tables, Logan reading a weathered copy of some book, and Virgil observing everyone, reminding himself why he associated summer with this camp so much. 

 

This was why he loved camp. The memories of joking around the fire, burning marshmallows and running around and playing stupid meme songs on instruments with new friends (the current soundtrack was a bunch of brass section kids playing a cover of All-Star by Smash Mouth. Virgil couldn’t have been more proud.)

 

As the sun fell farther into the sky, stars making themselves known, Virgil was feeling as if maybe Patton had forgotten about asking him to play guitar, but Virgil wasn’t so lucky as for that, as Patton excitedly came up to him, asking for his guitar. Reluctantly, Virgil left to his cabin to grab it, leaving Logan to being dragged by Patton to sit next to him by the fire. 

 

When Virgil came back, things had died down a bit. The business of the day had finally caught up with everyone, counselor and camper, as tired faces shone around the orange light of the fire. They waited expectantly while Virgil tuned his guitar, looking up at everyone. 

 

“So, any suggestions?” 

 

Turns out, a lot of people had suggestions. He spent the next hour playing a wide variety of typical campfire songs, pop songs, meme songs, all of it, the campers screaming the lyrics to their hearts desire, no doubt being heard loud and clear from the Parchment unit across the trail. 

 

Virgil found himself having fun strumming out the music for all the campers, allowing a smile to sit comfortably on his face. 

 

Every so often, as his eyes would drift around the fire, he would make eye contact with Roman, who offered a smile- a truce. 

 

Virgil nodded, offering a smile back. 

 

As the night got later and later, Logan effectively shut the campfire down, saying everyone should be getting ‘optimal sleep’ for the early morning ahead of them, the first full day of classes. Campers shuffled into their cabins as the counselors cleaned up the campfire. 

 

Virgil found himself cleaning up paper plates from smores, tossing them into the tiny fire that remained. He hadn’t realized it, but Roman had made his way to standing next to him, tossing trash in the fire. 

 

“So that song you were playing, earlier, on the piano, what song was that?” Virgil shrugged, tossing another plate in the fire. 

 

“Just something in my head I guess.” Roman’s eyebrows furrowed. 

 

“You just… came up with that on the spot?” 

 

“I suppose so, Princey.” Another plate in the fire. A pause as Roman thought about his next response. 

 

“Are you just going to keep calling me that now?” Roman’s voice was quiet as a soft laugh fell out of his mouth. 

 

Another plate, the last one. A shrug. 

 

“It fits.” 

 

Virgil picked up his guitar and waved to Patton and Logan. 

 

“‘Night.” 

 

Virgil’s eyes met Roman’s. Roman looked back, curiosity in his eyes. 

 

Virgil gave him a quick salute and went to the Alighieri cabin. 

 

“You too, Princey.”

 

Things were okay. Maybe there would always be some bad, but Virgil thought that maybe, just maybe, things would be okay. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> oo f sorry for the break there guys, work and such kept me from getting this out quite when i wanted to. this chapter has a lot of moments i really like, but also i feel like it's not that good, but that's just my anxiety talking probably, heh. anyway! next chapter we're getting a logan centric one, featuring dancing, friendships, and ooo whats that?? feelings?? amazing. 
> 
> anyway, hope you guys like this one despite the wait! <3


	6. white swan

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The music that echoed in the dance studio was soft, and yet it filled Logan’s ears, blocking out any other noises as the simple melody of a distant orchestra consumed his every senses.

The music that echoed in the dance studio was soft, and yet it filled Logan’s ears, blocking out any other noises as the simple melody of a distant orchestra consumed his every senses.  

 

Logan ran through the combination in his head, count by count, move by move. _Counts 1, 2, 3, 4- step, reach, prep, leap_. Logan’s foot hit awkwardly to the ground, causing him to stumble slightly, getting just a count off of the music. He mentally berated himself. He knew he could do better. He had done better many, many times. He skipped the next move to catch up again with the music, but the simple misstep sent his mind racing until he just stopped moving.

 

Grabbing his phone connected to the speaker, he reset the song.

 

_If it wasn’t perfect, then why continue?_

 

He caught up to where he had been before. His landing on his leap was much better as he smoothly transitioned into the next 4 counts.

 

_Relevé in fifth, chassé right, chassé left-_ _keep the arms straight, Logan, you’re slacking._ He could practically hear his Aunt’s voice chastising him. She had always been harsher as a teacher than when they were at family gatherings, and she had always been especially harsher with Logan than she had been with her other students. Maybe it was because they were family. Logan could never tell. But, for worse or better, her berating, shrill voice from many dance classes had made him more aware when he was making mistakes and allowed him to correct them sooner. His Aunt had made him sharp, attentive to the details, able to notice what he was doing wrong.

 

Logan straightened his arms and continued.

 

_Prep, soubresaut, land, prep._

 

Logan took in a calm breath of air. The hardest part was coming up, but he knew if he stressed at all, it would throw his posture off, and ruin it before he even began. He had to keep relaxed, keep his shoulders down, and breathing steady.

 

8 fouettés, that was it. This time, he would just do the 8, and move on.

 

_1, 2, 3-_ He was doing it!- _4, 5, 6-_ This was going great! While the strain on his legs was beginning, Logan felt a rush as he spun around almost endlessly, bobbing up and down with the music. _7, 8-_ Logan knew the mix his pride and adrenaline was getting to his head. _I could do more, if I could do this many, I could do so many more._

 

_9, 10, 11-_ The strain on the legs was becoming harder to ignore. Panic flared in Logan as he concentrated on the mistakes he knew he was making. He tried to correct them, tried to continue his turns and keep his movements clean, but the more he pointed out his own mistakes, the more he struggled to keep up his momentum, the more he started to stumble and falter. What was the point in continuing if it wasn’t perfect? He wanted to keep going, but his thoughts overrode his abilities.

 

Logan was always the worst at his turns.

 

By 16 turns, Logan lost his momentum, ending his fouettés in an embarrassing display of losing his balance and nearly falling onto the wooden ground of the dance studio. Logan stumbled his way over to the dance bars on the wall of the studio, gripping them tightly to regain balance. His head was spinning- a sign that his spotting when he was turning was poor, something he took mental note of as he replayed the move in his head.

 

In Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake, Act 3, the Black Swan performs 32 fouettés in a row, nearly a minute of endless spinning over and over and over again, hypnotizing the audience as they spun like a top that would never fall.

 

Logan was half-way there. Halfway to being as good as the Black Swan. But even as he tried to reassure himself of that, he knew that it was a stretch- the fouettés past his first 8 were sloppy, he knew they were.

 

He was not good enough to be quite as captivating as the Black Swan.

 

When he had been 11, his Aunt had performed with a traveling company of Swan Lake, herself as the lead role, duel cast as Odette, the White Swan, and Odile, the Black Swan.

 

Logan, while being a relatively low energy child compared to most, was still finding himself bored sitting through the ballet with his parents, just to watch his Aunt perform.

 

And then she perfected the 32 fouettés, and in young Logan’s eyes, it was magic.

 

A magic that he desperately wanted to recreate.

 

Logan, though, was always the worst at turns.

 

Picking himself up from his fall, Logan turned off the music, catching his breath and taking a drink of water.

 

The first day of camp, Logan soon realized he would not be doing too much dancing. The extent of what the dance instructors had the counselors help do was run warm-ups for the campers, and occasionally demonstrate moves or combinations the instructor wanted the kids to imitate. The counselors were allowed to critique the kids, help them to improve, but as far as actual choreography and participating in it, the counselors were left in the back of the studio, watching on.

 

Not exactly what Logan had expected, to say the least.  

 

So, the first full day of camp, he took the 2-hour long break right after lunch that the students had and used the empty studio for himself, to practice his dancing and keep himself in decent shape. Logan knew if he fell out of habit while at the camp, it would spell disaster for his ability to retain the muscle memory and information he had learned in his years of dancing. The instructor, the counselors, and the campers were away, so Logan was allowed to run free.

 

This was the second full day, and once again, he had taken the break where he himself could have gone out and done one of the many activities offered at camp to instead dance, which Logan was more than okay with as a trade-off.

 

After composing himself from his hubris induced failure, Logan turned back to his phone, ready to start his music up again, when a voice called from the doorway to the studio.

 

“I assume you recognize the flaws in your performance?” The dance instructor, Mx. Quinn Berkley, stood at the doorway, letting themselves in.

 

Logan’s hand drifted away from his phone as he nodded.

 

“Fouettés are… not my strongest skill.” Logan noted. Mx. Berkley raised an eyebrow, then nodded.

 

“So you say. Well, you had a good run going there- you got a good number in, and it seemed you could have done more. What went wrong?”

 

Logan thought over his performance. What had gone wrong?

 

“I- am not skilled enough to do that many fouettés yet?” The statement came out more like a question than as a statement. Mx. Berkley laughed.

 

“You question that statement, and I think for good reason. In your first eight, you had near flawless execution. Then, you fumbled. What were you thinking at that moment, as you passed the first eight turns?”

 

“I-” Logan paused, carefully choosing his words, “I got too emotional. I listened to my heart instead of my head, and my precision suffered from it.”

 

Mx. Berkley hummed, nodding.

 

“Though I am not you, Mr. Krelborn, I would like to offer an alternative possibility as to your inability to complete the turns. You are, possibly, too _much_ in your head and not _enough_ in your heart. You overthink every move, I can see it in your face. It’s as if you are figuring out a math problem, you are going through the steps of the move in your head, the angles, the measurements, everything. Which is perfect and necessary for ballet, but it is also good to remember that thinking too much will cause you to second guess. Sometimes you have to just _do_ , Mr. Krelborn. Do you understand?”

 

“Yes.”

 

Logan did not understand.

 

It seemed Mx. Berkley had contradicted themselves multiple times in their speech. So it was good that he was precise, but it was also his downfall? Logically, it just didn’t make sense.

 

Mx. Berkley nodded and simply walked back to the exit of the studio.

 

“I would like to see you perfect those fouettés by the end of summer, Mr. Krelborn. Let me know how it goes.”

 

And with that, they were gone, and Logan was once again on his own.

 

Without a second thought, he played the music.

 

One more try for the day before classes resumed.

 

\---

 

That evening, after classes had been finished, dinner had been eaten, Roman had recounted the many misadventures of his musical theater class, and the campers and counselors returned to their units for a short time, the camp was treated to a performance in the Snell Amphitheater by a professional Orchestra. Though typically Logan would be focused in on such a performance, doing his best to think about the song in the context of what the announcer would describe as the story it was trying to tell, he found his mind elsewhere.

 

As the music echoed through the outdoor amphitheater, Logan couldn’t help but imagine how he would choreograph such a piece, to transpose the music, the story into a movement.

 

The song picked up speed as it reached its climax, and Logan couldn’t help himself as he imagined himself, on the stage, ending the song in a perfect 32 fouettés, a relevé, and a bow.

 

Logan often thought Roman was too much of a dreamer, getting lost with his head in the sky so often it clouded his judgment.

 

In that moment, Logan supposed he was too much of a dreamer as well, and all he wanted to do was wake up.

 

As the sun set on the camp, the Orchestra finished their performance, and the units split off to go to bed for the night. Logan found himself at the back of the group of Stanza and Parchment campers and counselors heading to the south of camp. The kids in his cabin were ahead of him, some of them still full of energy and joking around with each other, some looking like they were going to pass out (those same ones, Logan noticed, had dozed off during the performance. While Logan would usually berate someone for doing as much at a professional performance, they didn’t snore or disrupt anyone, and Logan could understand that after just two days, this camp could be tiring. So, he let them have their sleep.) Logan’s cabin, Shakespeare, had good kids, though Logan was not looking forward to trying to convince the ones currently jumping around the trail to go to sleep when they returned to camp.

 

“Lo, are you doing okay?” A familiar voice startled Logan out of his thoughts. Roman, who had once been near the front of the pack, had stayed behind to catch up with Logan. Logan shrugged.

 

“I’ve quite honestly been better. I think, though, all I need is some sleep, and I’ll be fine.”

 

“You know, you would be getting better sleep if you weren’t running around with Patton to who-knows-where every morning before the campers wake up.” Logan blinked as he looked over at Roman, who was coyly smiling.

 

“However would you know about that?”

 

“Virgil mentioned he saw you two one day, and, because I am a wary and protective best friend, I thought I would sacrifice my beauty sleep to possibly spot my best friend, of many years might I add, canoodling behind my back.” Roman laughed. Logan was so happy it was dark out so Roman couldn’t see Logan’s face flush.

 

“It is not like that, Roman. Patton had invited me to the lake for one morning, I joined him, and I found I rather like the peacefulness of going, that is all.”

 

That was, in fact, not a lie. When Logan had first joined Patton at the lake, he had meant it as an apology for not listening to him earlier in the day. In Logan’s eyes, actions spoke louder than words, so the action of joining him was meant to be his apology. But, as Logan spent that first morning there, he found himself relaxed, yes, but also perplexed. The latter mostly because Patton Woods confused Logan ever so much. With the rest of the counselors and campers, Patton constantly exuded energy. He was never ending jumping and giggling and joking and talking. So, when sat at the beach, Logan prepared himself for that same behavior. And yet, that wasn’t what happened. Patton Woods was quiet most of the time, eyes closed as he would just listen to the surrounding nature. Occasionally, he would pipe up just to point out certain things to Logan- the smell of the lake, the sounds of singing birds, the feel of the sand, just small little observations that Patton seemed to like so much he wanted to share them with Logan. But, other than that, Patton was quiet and at peace.

 

And that fascinated Logan.

 

He found himself having a good morning that morning, and before they arrived back at camp, he asked to maybe come again. Patton had looked absolutely overjoyed.

 

_“Of course Logan! I would_ lake _that very much.”_

 

_“Didn’t you make that pun the other day?”_

 

_“I guess so, but I’m CURRENTly trying to think of some more water puns, don’t worry.” Patton had giggled and skipped ahead to go back to Stanza._

 

Roman nodded at Logan’s explanation, crossing his arms. Logan followed Roman’s gaze, which was straight ahead, looking at a laughing Patton joking around with his campers ahead on the trail.

 

“So, if you did happen to develop any sort of feelings for one of our co-counselors and started sneaking off in the early mornings to make out with said co-counselor, you would tell me? Your best friend?” Before Logan could respond, Roman spoke again, “Also may I remind you I have told you in devastating detail every single one of my crushes in the past.” Logan let a soft laugh escape him.

 

“You don’t need to remind me of that. Trust me, with all of your talk of David, and then Christian, and then Brendon, and then-”

 

“Okay pocket protector, no need to be listing all of my tragic romances.” Logan smiled.

 

“If you say so. Anyways, yes. I would, of course, tell you, Roman, though I hate to inform you that you will be getting no interesting stories of such matter coming from me.”

 

Roman slung his arm around Logan’s shoulders as they continued walking.

 

“Just making sure, my dearest of dear friends. Now let's hurry up, the sooner we get back to the unit, the sooner my cabin and I can complete the giant pillow fort we started in Poe. It really is magnificent, I’d show you when we are finished, but it’s unfortunately for Poe eyes only.”

 

Logan rolled his eyes.

 

Sometimes, he was really grateful to have the best friends that he had.

 

\---

 

That night, Logan hadn’t slept very well, though he couldn’t determine any particular reason why he hadn’t slept well. All he knew was that he kept waking up during the night, and now, as his phone read 5 am, an hour before the campers needed to be up and when he usually left to the lake with Patton, he did not want to get out of bed.

 

He wondered if maybe Patton had already left to go to the lake without him. After all, Logan had only accompanied him 3 or 4 times, and before that Patton had been going apparently every morning. But at this point, Logan knew Patton just well enough to realize he would probably patiently wait for Logan to be up to leave with him because Patton was just that kind of guy.

 

Logan was conflicted. On one hand, he knew that optimal sleep would be necessary to have a fairly functional day. On the other hand, Logan was not much of a fan of ditching Patton without warning when they had gone the past 4 mornings together.

 

Weighing his options, Logan sighed, pulling himself out of bed and out of the cabin, where, unsurprisingly, Patton was waiting on the park bench outside, gaze somewhere out in the forest, a faint smile on his face.

 

Logan would have felt awful if he had let him wait there for an hour before he had to get the campers awake.

 

Logan softly closed the cabin door behind him, but the soft sound was still enough to capture Patton’s attention, who gave him a warm smile.

 

“Good morning Logan!”

 

Logan offered a smile back as Patton jumped up from his seat, already headed to walk to the beach.

 

“Good morning to you too, Patton.” Without another word, the two went on the trail headed to the lake.

 

The past few mornings, Patton was always the most talkative on the walks to and from the lake, while quieting down once they actually got there. This morning though, Patton didn’t really seem much up for talking and ended up just humming a song to himself as the two walked side by side on the path.

 

Their time at the lake was like it had been the other mornings; Patton, eyes closed, attention completely on the nature around him, and Logan, eyes wide, staring out onto the horizon as the sun crept up, in his head running through the things he would have to get done that day.

 

It drew closer to 6 am, and though the time was left unspoken, both Patton and Logan knew they would have to get going, so they made their way onto the trail.

 

Once again, Patton stayed unusually silent on the walk back. Logan always seemed to notice these inconsistencies in people, but he had found that people tend to not like it when you point them out, so he said nothing.

 

As they returned to Stanza, Patton finally spoke.

 

“So, I was planning to head to Main Camp during break time today to maybe grab some ice cream and things from the camp store. Would you want to come with?”

 

Logan stopped in his tracks. He was, to say the least, puzzled. Why would Patton want to invite him of all of them? Sure, they went to the beach in the mornings, but besides that, Logan would hardly say they ‘hung out’ outside of events with the unit. Most of the time, Logan would be with Roman, and Patton with Virgil. While occasionally the groupings were mixed up, Patton and Logan were usually only grouped when Roman and Virgil would bicker.

 

Or, Logan supposed, the campfire.

 

_“Come on, Logan! There’s no need to be so low...GAN!” Patton grabbed Logan’s hand, practically dragging him to the seat next to him by the fire. Logan, frankly, didn’t have much interest in singing campfire songs or telling poorly conceived and plot-hole ridden ghost stories, but he found that perhaps he didn’t have it in him to say no to Patton._

 

_And, yet, despite his disinterest, he found himself having fun as Patton and the rest of the campers and counselors belted out songs without abandon._

 

“Why would you want to invite me? Why not Virgil?” Logan asked, catching up to Patton as he took a seat at one of the picnic tables.

 

“Virgil is spending the break with his pal Remy apparently. Besides, I want to hang out with you, Logan! Please?” Patton stretched out the ‘please’, smiling wide at Logan.

 

Logan was fully prepared to decline the offer. For one, he wasn’t the biggest fan of ice cream anyway, and for two, he remembered what Mx. Berkley had said about his fouettés, and he so desperately wanted to work to perfect them.

 

But Logan also remembered that he was trying not to steamroll everyone else's ideas, to not shake them off as not worth his time.

 

Logan sighed.

 

“Well, I wanted to work on some dancing during break today-” before Logan could finish, he already saw the excitement wavering on Patton’s face. Though Logan could tell Patton was trying not to show it, disappointment reached his eyes as his smile faded slightly.

 

“But,” Logan continued, “I believe we could make a compromise to make it work. If you allow me the first hour of break to work in the dance studio, then I’m sure I can accompany you to Main Camp for the last half. Would that be adequate?”

 

Patton looked like he might tackle hug Logan, and Logan was grateful he didn’t.

 

“That’s perfect! After lunch, we can head right to the dance studio!”

 

Logan swallowed. He did not intend on Patton joining him to the dance studio to witness his practice.

 

“Patton, I figured you could just meet-” Logan never finished though, as Patton checked the time, and jumped up from his seat.

 

“Time to go wake the kiddos! Sorry, Logan. I’ll see you later!” With that, Patton ran off to the Carroll cabin.

 

Logan sighed and made his way to Shakespeare to likewise get his campers up and ready for the day.

 

\---

 

After morning classes, Logan had nearly forgotten that he had never told Patton to just meet him _after_ he was done at the dance studio. That was, until, lunch ended, and as Logan started on the trail to the dance studio, he found Patton running up to him.

 

“Heya Lo! You ready to go?” Patton giggled at his own rhyme as he jumped up next to Logan. With wide eyes, Logan remembered he had never told Patton not to join him, and now it was far too late.

 

“Oh, yes, I suppose.” Logan coughed out, making his way down the path.

 

Similar to their typical walks to and from the beach, Patton was very, very talkative. He recounted his morning classes to Logan, describing his misadventures with the other art counselor, Talyn, as well as various stories of the pieces of art different kids were making.

 

“-and then Kai just THREW the WHOLE paint can at the painting he was working on! Granted, there wasn’t much in there, but it did create a bit of a mess. Good thing at the art studio they don’t care about paint getting everywhere because that would have been a _pain-_ t to clean up!”

 

Logan groaned at the pun, as he usually did, but if he was being honest, the collection of Patton’s jokes were started to grow on him.

 

Logan nodded as he listened to all of Patton’s stories. Occasionally, Patton would ask if anything interesting happened in Logan’s classes, but the truth was, Logan had no stories. Whereas it seemed like the art students had a lot of freedom to create, leading to the various stories that Patton had, the dance students had little wiggle room like that. Much of the class was just trying different moves, combinations, and sets as the teacher instructed. So, Logan would just shrug, stating the uneventful, and Patton would nod and continue on with his stories.

 

Eventually, they made it to the dance studio. Logan flicked on the light switch, and glanced around. Over by where the speakers were, there was a single chair, where Logan usually rested his phone as it was connected to said speakers. Logan hummed, walking over as he set up his phone. He gestured towards the seat.

 

“I suppose you can sit here if you like, though there aren’t many options for seating, I apologize.” Patton shrugged, walking over and plopping himself down on the chair.

 

“That’s just fine!” Logan nodded as he finished hooking up his phone to the speakers and prepping his music.

 

“Well, you can spend the time on your phone or whatever you wish while I work,” Logan said, heading to the side door to the bathrooms to get changed into his dance clothes. Patton waved him off.

 

“Nonsense! I’d love to see you dance, kiddo!”

 

Logan swallowed. He realized fast he wouldn’t be able to discourage Patton from his stance. The last thing Logan wanted was an audience to add pressure to his trying to perfect the choreography he had been working on. But, he supposed that was what he had to deal with for the day, so he just nodded his head and left to get changed.

 

When he returned, he found Patton glancing around the studio, observing different things about it. He seemed to be lost in his own thoughts but turned his attention back to Logan as he entered, smiling patiently.

 

Logan said nothing and just went to his music to start up his warm-up playlist. If he just pretended no one was there, then maybe the pressure of an audience would be alleviated. So, Logan began his stretches to warm up, trying his best not to think about the fact that Patton was there.

 

Logan ran through his warm-up routine as usual. First, starting with simple stretches, then going on to do some of the more complex ones. Eventually, he really did forget Patton was there, and just went through as normal, humming along slightly to the music playing in the background.

 

When he finished up, Logan was shocked to see Patton practically gaping at him.

 

“Wow! You sure are flexible, huh?” Patton laughed.

 

Logan was not graced with the dark of night, and Patton could most certainly see Logan’s face burn a bright red as he walked to his music and tried to hide his face in his phone.

 

_You sure are flexible, huh?_

 

Well, if Logan wasn’t frazzled before, he certainly was now.

 

Patton, on the other hand, seemed perfectly cheery.

 

Logan was regretting anything and everything as he started up the music to his actual choreography.

 

His first run was choppy to say the least, only getting halfway through the song and not even close to the part with the fouettés before he made himself restart. His mind was just in too many places at once, and he couldn’t complete the dance. Patton seemed confused when Logan had just suddenly stopped dancing and restarted the music, but said nothing.

 

The next runs ran smooth as Logan got more comfortable. In that hour, he never attempted the fouettés in front of Patton, but he did run through the rest of the choreography fairly seamlessly by the end. On occasion, Logan would catch Patton’s eye, and Patton would give a supportive smile and a thumbs up.

 

It was simultaneously reassuring but also nerve-wracking to remember he still had an audience. Logan felt like he had to perform, and he was nowhere near ready to perform this piece.

 

For once, Logan was relieved when he finished dancing once the hour was up.

 

As the two left the dance studio, Logan was shocked as to how much Patton was gushing about his dancing.

 

“That was just SPEC-tactular, specs! How long have you been dancing?”

 

“About… 8 years now? Not nearly as long as many of the campers will have been dancing by the time they’re my age though.”

 

“Still! That’s an awfully long time and an awful lot of talent! I loved the way you did that spinny thing where you went-” Patton cut himself off trying to perform a pirouette on the dirt trail, Logan quickly catching his arm before he tumbled to the ground.

 

“Careful, Patton.” He warned, pulling him up. Patton shrugged, smiling.

 

“You made it look a lot more graceful.”

 

Logan coughed.

 

“Oh. Thank you, I suppose.”

 

“Not a problem, Logan!”

 

Patton was surprisingly curious about everything to do with dancing, asking about the different moves Logan had done, what they were called, how to do them. Logan wasn’t much used to people being so interested in the technical of dancing and was honestly more than happy to ramble off all of the information he had learned in his years of dance. Logan rarely got to do this, and to be sharing all of this built up information with someone who was actually listening was a nice change.

 

Soon, they made it back to Main Camp, Patton running up ahead towards the snack bar, where they served Ice cream, Logan in tow behind.

 

“I’ll have the swirl! Logan, what do you want? I’m paying!”

 

“Oh, I’m not interested-” Logan cut himself off as his eyes caught something on the menu.

 

“You guys serve Crofters as a topping on ice cream?” The question came out quiet but intense. The counselor running the store nodded.

 

“Yup. Someone requested it last year and it became a big hit. You want that?” Almost too eagerly, Logan nodded his head, and the counselor went to work making their ice creams. They got their ice creams and walked over to a bench under some trees overlooking Main Camp.

 

Hesitant, Logan took the first bite, and then another, and then another, and then it was gone. When he scooped only to find his bowl was empty, Patton laughed.

 

“A bit of a fan of jelly?” Logan shook his head.

 

“No, just Crofter’s.” Patton raised an eyebrow.

 

“Any reason a why?”

 

Logan shrugged.

 

“It’s uh, well it’s somewhat silly, I suppose.” Patton cocked his head.

 

“I’m sure it’s not! Lo, I’m not gonna judge you or anything.” Patton took another bite of his own ice cream.

 

“Alright, well, when I was younger and had just started dance classes, my Aunt- she was my dance teacher- would take me to her house after dance classes, and would always give me the same snack, Crofters on toast. Simple, easy, and I suppose now I just associate the taste with the happy memories of something like dance class,” Logan paused, “Also, mostly, it is just an exceptionally well-made jam, and unlike any others I have tried. But the nostalgia, I suppose, helps too.”

 

He looked to Patton to see his reaction. Patton had his hands squishing his cheeks, blue eyes practically shining.

 

“That’s. So. CUTE!” He practically squealed, turning back to his ice cream, “I wish I would have gotten what you got now, I would love to try some, I’ve never had Crofters before!”

 

Logan looked aghast.

 

“ _Never?_ ”

 

“I haven’t really seen that brand in any of the stores I go to back in California, though I’m sure they’ll be in one of them if I look hard enough!”

 

“You’re from… California?” Logan hadn’t realized Patton was from so far away. While some counselors commuted from states away to come to this camp, (Thomas, their unit director, came all the way from Florida,) but most went to colleges in-state, or were at least originally from the state but going to college out of state. So, Logan had wrongfully assumed that besides Thomas, the rest of the unit originated nearby the camp. Apparently not, as Patton smiled.

 

“Yup! Born and raised!”

 

“I was unaware. Why did you choose to come here, of all places?”

 

“I asked my art professeur back at college for their recommendations on where to find an art-related summer job, and they’re apparently from this area, so they recommended working here! And here I am, and I’m pretty glad too because if I hadn’t listened to them, I wouldn’t have met Talyn or Nani or Roman or Virgil or you!” Patton gave a wide grin, finishing off his ice cream. Logan struggled to come up with a response.

 

“Wow. I’ve never been. Is it nice where you live?” Patton’s gaze went out towards Main Camp, a pleasant look on his face.

 

“Yeah. It’s a lot sunnier, for one, which I do miss, but also-” Patton cut himself off, eyes going wide as if he finally realized something.

 

“Wait, you’ve never been to California before? That’s crazy! I’ll have to take you some time, if you like the beach here, just WAIT until you see Santa Monica! They have this crazy pier with tons of stuff to do and sometimes it’s overwhelming because there are a lot of people, but you get used to it and it’s so nice! Oh, Logan, you would love it!”

 

Logan blinked at Patton’s excitement.

 

“Would I?”

 

“I think you would. Like I said, we should go sometime! Invite Roman and Virgil and Thomas too, we could make it a whole trip with the Stanza family!”

 

Logan thought maybe that wasn’t a bad idea.

 

\---

 

Eventually, the two had to part ways as the break time came to an end. Patton caught up with Talyn, introducing Logan to them before running off to the Visual Arts hall, leaving Logan to head back on his own to the dance studio.

 

Funnily enough, Logan’s mind wasn’t on what he had to get done in the afternoon classes, or what work he should do on his choreography, but instead was on his time with Patton. How excited Patton got when he talked about home, how he was so attentive and was a good listener in a way that Logan didn’t expect. How he smiled brightly and fully, and though sometimes it didn’t feel genuine, you could tell by his eyes, how they sometimes would shine in turn with the smile, that he was truly joyful.

 

Logan knew he had underestimated Patton when he first met him. Though he cracked jokes and was very talkative, he was also passionate, he was good at getting the four counselors to cooperate like when they worked on the song together for All Camp Sing. Mostly though, he seemed like he just wanted to be a really good friend to everyone, and though Logan would never take on that challenge himself, he found Patton’s effort commendable.

 

Dinner came around at camp, the Stanza unit counselors and unit director all taking seats at the end of the table. The discussion turned into one of a bit of a debate, regarding the Hogwarts placement of various Disney characters. Roman and Virgil seemed to get the most heated into the debate, constantly countering each other's suggestions with other house suggestions and evidence as to why. Patton and Thomas would put in their two cents about what they thought the sortings should be, and specifically enjoyed whenever the group came to the consensus that a character would be in Hufflepuff. Logan, while not the most participatory in the debate, found himself enjoying analyzing various characters and sharing his thoughts with the rest of the group as to figure out the sorting.

 

While in the week of training before camp, the group had been fighting often, this felt different. The debate at dinner was charged by banter and humor with friends, instead of frustration with strangers, as it had been before. The change was possibly not noticeable by a stranger, but Logan could see it for himself- though Roman and Virgil argued, neither of them looked like they were actually angry, and seemed to be enjoying themselves bantering in the conversation. Patton would always be there to listen to anyone’s thoughts if they were being spoken over, this happening to Logan quite a few times. So, in return, Logan would always make sure when Patton had a thought to share, that he could get it out to the group and would be listened to.

 

When dinner had ended and the group had made their way down the trail, Logan and Virgil found themselves walking side by side on the trail, Virgil asking about how the stars on the cabin ceiling were holding up, which ended up devolving into Logan telling Virgil about some of his favorite constellations and places to chart stars, which Virgil listened to quite well.

 

As they were talking, Logan found himself suddenly hugged from behind, nearly causing Logan to fall over. As Logan was released from the hug, he found that it had been Patton, who skipped up beside him.

 

“Logan! I just wanted to say thanks for today, in general. I had a lot of fun at Main Camp and getting to see you dance, I think maybe it’s been my favorite day at camp so far, and I thought I’d let you know! I’ll see you bright and early tomorrow morning, right?”

 

Patton’s smile was… different. It wasn’t wide or cheesy like he usually wore it. Instead, it was a subtle, soft, and so, so, so genuine.

 

As Logan’s eyes met Patton’s, he felt something stirring in his stomach.

 

“Uh, yes, of course. As usual.” Logan replied, the words coming strained out of his mouth.

 

_This isn’t happening, I swear this isn’t happening-_

 

Patton giggled, grabbing Logan’s hand and squeezing it.

 

“Fantastic!” With that, Patton went off to talk to Thomas.

 

Logan was stunned. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Virgil watching, eyebrow raised and the corner of his mouth turned to an amused smile.

 

“Excuse me.” Logan quickly said, running up through a group of campers to where Roman was walking with Elliott, one of the counselors from Parchment.

 

“Roman Bloom, can we speak for a moment?”

 

Logan rarely called Roman by his full name to his face. Those times were reserved for moments of panic, and Roman knew this. He excused himself from his conversation with Elliott, and the two fell into step to the side of the trail, a bit away from where everyone else was walking.

 

“Lo, what’s up?”

 

Logan wanted to talk, but his throat was closed off, he couldn’t bring himself to speak.

 

_Shit, this isn’t happening, I swear to God-_

 

“Logan, you’re scaring me, are you good?”

 

Logan gulped, finally finding his voice, quiet as it may be.

 

“Remember how we had that talk the other day about… what I could potentially feel about other counselors?” Roman thought for a second, then nodded, eyebrows furrowed. 

 

“What’s going on?”

 

“I think I have found myself in a bit of a predicament.”  

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> um. well. so i didn't really end up proofreading this because i wanted to get it out to you guys today, so im not really sure how good this is. i have meant to finish this chapter and post it for the past 3 days, but things just weren't working out. im thinking i may have to start only updating weekly. as much as i would like to update every 2-3 days, with all the work i have coming up im not sure how possible it will be to do that. still, im going to try and update as fast as possible for you guys. 
> 
> on the bright side though (and a bit off topic but whats new for me), the new cartoon therapy episode was great! avatar is a favorite series of mine which just added something great on top of an already amazing thomas content thing lol. but because i liked it so much and was like half my motivator for finally getting this done today, i sprinkled in some cameos of my faves bc they are definitely at Hickory Forest.
> 
> OOF also this story passed 300 hits and 60 kudos? what??? thats wild guys ily all sm 
> 
> anyway, i hope you guys still liked this chapter despite its lateness and lack of being proofread!! let me know what you think, thank you so much for reading <3

**Author's Note:**

> i literally havent posted anything here in 2 years so? we'll see how this goes. im not sure how good this is, i just felt a sudden burst of wanting to write this so here we go! hope you guys enjoy!!


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